Real Estate Evils AKA Mortal Buys Alucard's Castle
by eclipsearikado
Summary: UPDATEDch17: Dracula observes tea (Alucard wakes up in the year 200X to find that an 18-year-old mortal girl has bought his castle and is moving in at all costs)
1. FEAR THE DHAMPIRE!

disclaimer: I don't own castlevania...duh...why else would I be writing this...  
a/n: this is my first castlevania fic and it's really bad soooooo DON'T READ IT XD and also, the text between the ~'s shows thinking...  
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The gleaming, mahogony door of Alucard's coffin opened with a minuet of tremendous creaking. The dhampire's eyes quickly scanned the room and instantly sensed that something wasn't right. What wasn't right? That's a simple one.  
"Why am I awake," he stepped out of the coffin and wondered why he had awoken from eternal slumber. The only reason would be that he was needed to aid mortals, and he had already defeated his father. Unless...~someone is in this castle~  
Immediately, his inference was responded by a loud crashing coming from one of the lower levels in the castle. Extremely irritated by the intrusion, Alucard found a staircase and tried to find the source of the noise.  
"YOU IDIOTS! THAT IS AN ANTIQUE!" the shriek came from one of the libraries. Alucard followed it and found around a dozen mortals. The one who had been screaming about antiques stood in the center, giving commands to the others, who grudgingly lifted and positioned furniture. "Oh, hello. Who might you be?" the one who gave orders greeted Alucard with a dazzling smile.  
"The owner of this castle," for some odd reason, his icy stare did not seem to affect the mortal.  
"Oh, no, that's not right. I bought this place last month. Who are you anyway?"  
"...call me Alucard,"  
"...You got a last name, 'hon?"  
~hon? What does that mean?~  
"Tepes. My name is Adrian Fahrenhit Tepes,"  
"...But you just said-" the young woman thought for a moment. "Tepes? Oh, my," she took out a stack of papers and looked through them. "...You can't be...a..."  
"What,"  
At this, the other mortals stopped moving and listened intently to the woman's silence. "GET BACK TO WORK!" she commanded, and then stared at Alucard and shook her head. "This tells me about the previous owners of this castle. Their last name was Tepes but..." she looked back down at the document. "It says that the last member of the family disappeared 600 years ago, and his name was Adrian Tepes,"  
~600 years...that's how long I've been sleeping.~  
Alucard shifted uncomfortably. How was he going to explain his history to a mortal?  
"All of you, get out," commanded the mortal. The ones moving furniture immediately filed out of the room.  
"I'd appreciate it if you leave my castle," hinted Alucard.  
"I hate to tell you this, but I invested a lot of money into this place, and I'm really not about to leave it without a refund," she shrugged. "Come closer,"  
Alucard threw her a sharp glare. He did not like receiving orders from a mortal, and she didn't look much older than 18. Nevertheless, his curiosity overpowered his stubborness and he took a few steps toward the mortal. The mortal tilted her head and stared at him as if there was a bat sitting on his head and he didn't know it.  
"...You're not human, are you," she didn't even say it like it was a question. It was as if she already knew.  
"Why would you say that?"  
"I got a feeling. And besides, just look at your skin," she gently lifted one of his hands. Alucard flinched. He wasn't expecting a mortal to want to get anywhere near him.  
"You assume that I'm a dhampire because of my skin?"  
"Oh, but see, you just admitted it. I never said that you were a dhampire. You just told me," the impossibly beautiful smile left her face. "...Whatever a dhampire is,"  
"...A half human, half vampire,"  
"Ah," the smile returned, lavishly sweeping across her face.  
~why does this mortal not fear me?! Did she not understand what I told her?!~  
"I suggest you leave this place for the sake of your own life," it was hard to keep a low volume when he spoke. No matter how many times he warned the mortal, she really just didn't get it.  
"Hey, like I told you. I spent too much money on this place. I really can't leave," she absentmindedly wiped the edge of a table with her index finger. "Of course, I don't see why you have such a problem with it,"  
Alucard opened his mouth to object but she cut him off.  
"You're one pers-dhampire...and I'm one mortal. 2 creatures living in this huge castle. It really can't be that hard. I'll bet we'll never even see each other. I'll pretend you're not here, and you can do the same for me,"  
"YOU JUST DON'T GET IT, DO YOU?!" well, keeping a low volume just went out the window.  
"...I suppose not. But I sure will find out soon enough, won't I?"  
"If you wish to stay, then it is your life to lose, not mine. I have tried to warn you," Alucard gave up left the library.  
"NICE MEETING YOU, ADRIAN!" she screamed, half-mockingly.  
~Adrian? No one's called me that for a few centuries...speaking of which, what year is this?~  
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*squeezes eyes shut* that was pretty bad, huh. well whatever please review ja ne! 


	2. hello, Death

disclaimer: I don't own castlevaina blah blah blah ok I'm done...  
a/n: in case you're wondering, Lena's real name is the name of a mineral...that sounds a lot like "Lena" XD  
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~She is a rich and irritatingly stubborn person who evidently does not know a thing about what has happened in the castle. However, her intrusion into my "home" is not what made me wake up. That would not make sense. As soon as she sees the demons around here, she'll run for her life and never disturb this place again, so why should I be awakened for all this?~  
"Alucard, I see that you have finally decided to wake up. Many people have died since the day you put yourself in that coffin,"  
Alucard recognized the scythe that was in the speaker's hands. "Death, I decided to do no such thing,"  
"...Then why did you wake up?"  
"I know not. Now, do you happen to know what year this is?"  
"None of the mortals keep track anymore. Every year is called '200X'," after saying this, Death shook his head while laughing and then faded away.  
~...what's he so gleeful about...~ Alucard glared at the empty space where Death used to be and wondered what he would do next. Usually, when he was awake, he always had work to do and things and people to deal with; a father to emulate, a mother's death to mourn, Belmonts to fight, Belmonts to side with, a father to kill. Now, there was nothing.  
He had been awakened for no good reason at all whatsoever and he didn't like it.  
Then again, what DID he like?  
Alucard stared at the floor and noticed a quite distinct white streak of paint running across the hallway. ~what the hell?!~ he knew that he had indirectly said that he never wanted to see or speak to the mortal "owner" of HIS castle ever again but...  
"MORTAL! WHAT THE **** HAVE YOU DONE?!!!!!!!!"  
a few minutes later, the mortal appeared in the hallway and stopped by the other side of the white line. "I have a name in case you haven't noticed..."  
"You never told me what it was,"  
"Oh...it's an odd name. Just call me Lena,"  
"I don't really care for that right now. WHAT IS THIS?!" Alucard pulled out his sword and pointed its tip at the white line.  
"Oh, THAT! Well, I decided to split this castle in half, and that's a part of the boundary line. I hope you don't mind. I don't think the painters got any paint on the carpet..."  
Alucard threw her a cold stare and she actually got the point for once.  
"...You don't like it?"  
Alucard shook his head.  
"OK no problem I'll remove it," she smiled.  
"...What do you mean YOU'll remove it..."  
"Just what I said. Those painters need a break anyway. I'll ask them how to get the paint off and do it myself,"  
"...Oh, god..."  
"What?"  
"Nothing..."  
"Alright. Bye, Adrian," she didn't seem the least bit upset about the project that lay before her. Alucard's castle was huge, and that was an understatement. Finding all those pieces of the boundary line would take her forever...yet she seemed to look forward to the matter.  
~mortals have gotten so strange in the last several centuries...~  
Lena kept to her word. In an hour, she had started working on removing the paint, which was no easy task for her because obviously, she had never really done any work or chores in her whole life, considering that she had enough money to buy the castle. She probably got through the 18 years of her life by paying other people to do her work for her.  
So her willingness to do something on her own clashed with what Alucard had thought of her before. She was still rich, irritatingly stubborn, and spoiled...but a hard worker at the same time?  
Alucard would watch, in his mist form, of course, as the mortal put some odd sort of potion on the paint that made the paint flaky. Then she'd have to scrape off the flaky paint. Unfortunately, the mortal wasn't a very productive worker and took an hour or two to remove 4 ft of paint.  
This annoyed Alucard. Couldn't the mortal do this any faster?!  
His impatience grew so immense that he decided, of all things, to help her.  
Alucard decided this while watching the mortal struggle with her work. Lena was starting to wonder about all the mist that constantly followed her whenever she was removing paint. She stared fixedly at the dense mist and her idle hands waved and tried to slice through the mist or something to that effect.  
"...How strange. I don't understand why there's always mist everywhere," she jumped...literally...when the mist formed into Alucard. "...ok I know you're a dhampire and everything, but you've really got to warn me before you do something like that,"  
"I've decided to offer my assistance,"  
"Uh...that's nice, Adrian,"  
"No, it's because you work too slow,"  
Lena immediately stabbed him with a blazing glare. It was the first time Alucard had seen her be anything other than happy. He was so stunned that he didn't notice at all when Lena held out a bottle to him.  
"...Hello? Adrian?" the contempt in her eyes shattered. "You ok?" Alucard didn't reply, and his poker-face-like expression didn't change either. Lena continued talking. "Anyway, assuming that you have been spying on me, you should know that this is the stuff I use to make the paint flaky. Good luck. This isn't exactly the most exciting task in the world,"  
Alucard took the bottle from her and went to find the remaining pieces of the boundary line.  
~I don't understand why she calls me by my real name. I've told her that everyone calls me Alucard. Why does she never listen?! Fine, I must admit that she did listen when I disapproved of the boundary line, but that is beside the point. Although...~  
He couldn't bring himself to finish the thought, that he didn't exactly mind Lena calling him Adrian instead of Alucard.  
  
Lena was almost done scraping off all the paint from the piece of the boundary line she was working on when she sensed something behind her. "...Adrian? Is that you?" she looked over her shoulder, saw the flashing blade of Death's scythe, and opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out.  
"Don't worry. I will bring you no harm,"  
"...but...but you're DEATH,"  
"...meh,"  
"What?" Lena put her hands to her heart and could feel the fast thumping.  
"Weeeell, I love mortals dying and everything, but I'm not sure if Alucard would like it if I killed you,"  
"Why not? He despises me,"  
"Still, he'd use any reason to kick my ass,"  
Lena leaned against a wall of the hallway and laughed. "He isn't very friendly, is he?"  
"Meh. I just wish he'd die,"  
  
Alucard finished the rest of the boundary line in less than an hour. While he was on his way to tell Lena, he heard laughing coming from where she was. He couldn't exactly say whether he was or wasn't stunned when he found Lena having a conversation (what a sin) with Death.  
Lena greeted Alucard with a smile no less mesmerizing then the smile she gave him the first time she saw him. "You're done already?"  
Alucard nodded, frowning. Lena turned back to Death. "Ok, so I'll see you later, Death?"  
"Most likely," Death faded.  
"He's actually quite nice for such a depressing fate," Lena stood up. "Look, Adrian, I'm sorry about the paint. Thanks for the help," she smiled again and disappeared down the hallway.  
Alucard wasn't so sure anymore that Lena would leave the castle because of the minions that resided in it. If she could make friends with Death, she could deal with anything.  
He understood now why she never "got" his point.  
But that wasn't what was so alarming to Alucard. The seed from which his new confusion bloomed was a feeling of exclusion when he found Lena talking to Death. Alucard had been alone for more than most of his life. Why did he feel excluded how?  
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the white lines weren't that bad. Just wait till you see what else Lena does to drive Alucard insane XD i'm so easily amused...review PLEASE i've only gotten like 1 review the last time I checked T.T I'm going to go sulk now 


	3. Almost the Last Straw

Disclaimer: I don't own Castlevania...I wanna move to Romania, tho lol  
  
A/N: and yesh Lena's real name ish Galena lol iunno why i decided to use that name....  
  
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The next morning, (or was it morning? Alucard could not tell. The whole castle was always covered in darkness. No exceptions...except for candles, that is) Alucard once again heard noise from downstairs. This was getting systematic. "Checking to see if mortal is still alive" was now officially part of his day's schedule...not that the contrast of day and night mattered much to him.  
  
The mortal, Lena-she called herself, was in the entrance hall, surrounded by other mortals her age. Most of her companions spoke amongst themselves about the intense size and elegance of the castle while the rest stared in awe at their surroundings.  
  
A girl Lena was talking to saw Alucard and said something to Lena, who turned around to face Alucard with an amiable expression, as always. "Yes, Adrian?" she acknowledged his unspoken question. "Don't say anything. I can explain,"  
  
Alucard gave a nonexistent response and Lena proceeded.  
  
"As you know, I spent a lot of money on the place. Sooooo I'm letting a few of my friends rent the East Wing of the first floor. When I get enough profit, I'll leave,"  
  
Alucard considered the plan. If he were to make her friends leave, she would never get profit and, henceforward, never leave. On the other hand, though he would have to deal with 50-some mortals, he would eventually be left alone. Was he actually agreeing with Lena? This couldn't be. "I wouldn't call this a 'few'," he answered, curtly, yet showing no opposition toward the plan.  
  
"More people, more profit, less waiting. What do you say, Adrian? PLEASE???"  
  
"This had better work,"  
  
"Oh, it will! You'll see! Thank you so much, Adrian!" Lena, of all doings, HUGGED (what a sin) Alucard to show her gratitude. This was even more shocking to the dhampire than the time in the library when Lena had noted his pale skin and held his right hand almost to his face to prove her point. Alucard was, if at all possible, now even more confused.  
  
"Who is that, your butler or something?" asked Lena's tomboy friend as soon as Lena returned to the mass of mortals.  
  
"No,"  
  
"Then why's he here?" asked another girl, Serena.  
  
"No reason,"  
  
"That was VERY specific,"  
  
"Alexis, just shut up, alright?!"  
  
"Bu-"  
  
"Lena, I think we have a problem..." Katie pointed at several approaching skeletal minions.  
  
"...Did your freakshow friend do that?" asked Axe.  
  
"He wouldn't,"  
  
"...Uh isn't the idea to run AWAY from the skeletons?"  
  
"Not necessarily..."  
  
"...Lena...?"  
  
Lena took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "DEATH! I NEED YOUR HELP!!!" nothing happened. "Crap,"  
  
~damn! how can she be so stupid to trust Death?!~ Alucard pulled out his sword, but before he could do anything, a scythe swept through the air and hacked all the skeletons.  
  
"...WHAT WAS THAT?!!!!!" Serena nearly fainted.  
  
"AWESOME!" Axe smiled sheepishly.  
  
"Thank you, Death," as quickly as he had appeared, Death vanished. Lena turned to Alucard. "Please tell me you did not summon them,"  
  
"I didn't...I tried to warn you. Though my father is dead, his presence lives on. He never liked mortals much. Minions will come after each and every one of you here until you leave or perish,"  
  
"That's friendly...oh, speaking of which. Who was your father?"  
  
"Vlad Dracula Tepes,"  
  
"Typical...there was just something about you. ok, I'll see you later. Bye, Adrian,"  
  
"What if we get lost or something? Maybe THEY live here..." Cassidy's eyes widened.  
  
"No, Cassidy, THEY don't live here...hmm I still need to choose a room. Someone come help me,"  
  
"...um how many rooms are there?!"  
  
"...1000...or more,"  
  
"Spare us all,"  
  
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DEATH ROX!!!!!!!!! XD ok next chappie ish going to be...odd lol 


	4. The Wonders of Gothic Mansions

disclaimer: I do not own Castlevania (Ra, this is getting repetitive...)  
  
A/N: heh my "brilliant" description of the room was based on several sources but mostly the ads for the Linens&Things and The Great Indoors stores. Another source I used was an article about the mansion that whatshisface Ford (that guy that started Ford cars...) owns. Of course, the whole blood red theme was implied before looking through any ads or articles lol   
  
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Lena and a few of her friends judged room after exquisite room, and finally, they came across the largest room they had ever seen.  
  
Light from the sun was completely blocked by velvet drapes the color of fresh blood, which hung from gold rods over windows almost twice as tall as the average person. The topaz finials on the rods, predictably, were shaped into bats. The only sources of light were the blood-red candles in the room. Several extravagant chandeliers rained down the candles' luminosity from the high, vaulted ceiling. Single, gold candleholders, accented by gold roses, rested atop mahogany tables and the mantles of the black, marble fireplaces. Mounted onto the walls were gold candleholders, branching out symmetrically to hold 2 candles each. These were also accented with gold roses.  
  
Lena picked up a candleholder from a wall sconce and instantly felt a prickling pain. Along the structure were tiny bits of topaz, shaped into sharp thorns. Lena watched curiously as blood emerged from her fingertips and dropped to the floor below, invisible among the yarns of the blood red, plush carpet. Scattered across the room in no particular order were rectangular rugs in lavish designs of burgundy and gold.  
  
The large size of the room was definitely not taken advantage of. There were few pieces of furniture including one desk of polished mahogany, several cushioned chairs with mahogany framework, and a few tables and corner sconces.  
  
The walls were also rather barren. Aside from the gold candleholders, the upholstered walls were only blotched by 2 mirrors, roses carved into the gold frames.  
  
Aside from the emptiness, it was perfect, except...  
  
"Why is there a coffin in here?" asked Alexis, eyeing the object with an insulting glare.  
  
Even in the almost nonexistent lighting, the coffin's mahogany panels gleamed with such intensity that it almost seemed alive.  
  
"This is Adrian's room," Lena was immediately rooted to her spot by the doorway.  
  
"It is not anymore. First thing we're doing is throwing out this coffin," Axe reached for a corner of the object.  
  
"Wait. We shouldn't-"  
  
"Lena, for the love of god, we are getting rid of this damn coffin!" Katie swung a full-frontal assault at the coffin with a large battleaxe, but the gleaming brilliance of the mahogany casket silently shred its attacker's weapon. Katie's eyes remained transfixed on the jagged edges of the dulling bits of her axe for a few moments.  
  
"I knew that was going to happen," Lena let a miniscule smirk escape her lips.  
  
"NOOOOOOO!" Katie then proceeded to hack the coffin to pieces with a stiletto, but that also proved to be ineffective and suicidal on the stiletto's part. The surface of the glossy casket grinned smugly, basking in the glow of its victory.  
  
"I'M GONNA THROW THAT CURSED COFFIN OUT THE WINDOW!!"  
  
"Let's not," Lena stepped between the painfully beautiful casket and her rabid friend. "Come on. Let's all just move this out into the hallway,"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"...Because I said so,"  
  
"Don't you feel guilty for stealing his room like this?" asked Melissa.  
  
"He never comes here anyway,"  
  
And so it begun. Over the course of a few days, undisturbed by neither Alucard nor his father's minions, the room was transformed...  
  
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Heh just see what Lena does to the outside of the castle...Alucard's not gonna like it, that's for sure. lol 


	5. PWETTY FLOWERS!

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN CASTLEVANIA however, I do own a huge mansion and a limo and a bodyguard j/k heh but I wish I did!  
  
A/N: do not fear; I am NOT planning to become an interior designer when I grow up. Also, you will notice that there are no TV's or computers and that is because I'm stuck in only semi-modern mode lol besides even in Aria of Sorrow, 2035, things feel like it's still in colonial times soooooo  
  
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Lena and her oblivious friends have forgotten to take one very important fact into account: Alucard was in the coffin when they put it out in the hallway...  
  
The second he woke up, Alucard knew that something was wrong. That something was apparent when he noticed his surroundings. He and his coffin were in the hallway outside his room. Scowling, he glanced at the double doors to his room, and they silently opened. Alucard nearly screamed in horror and rage about what he saw.  
  
His once blood red walls were now a light blue that matched his own eyes. Scattered across the light blue background were floral patterns in the purest of silver. However, he was not at all surprised by the object that was in the spot of his coffin. Lena was, after all, a mortal, and mortals, of course, slept in beds, something that he was not quite familiar with. Alucard remembered some from his childhood when his mother was still around, and he tried to relate his memories to Lena's bed.  
  
The first thing he noticed about the bed was its square-ish shape. It certainly took up at least 5 times the space that his coffin did. This bed was most likely much larger than most beds, considering how Lena wasted her money. The wooden structure of the bed was constructed of mahogany that was not quite as magnificent as his coffin. Carved into the wood was a floral pattern matching the silver clusters on the walls, and the pillows and sheets were the same light blue and silver as the walls. One part of the bed was overflowing with fluffy pillows in an assortment of sizes and designs. Some had ruffled edges and patterns of light blue and silver stripes while others had normal borders and the floral patterns of the walls.  
  
Ruffles were something that Alucard hardly came upon, and he had seen enough of it on the pillows. Unfortunately for Alucard, his eyes met the ruffled bedskirts.  
  
It took his eyes a few minutes to adjust to the brightness of the room. Not only were most of the candles replaced by electric lighting, the thick, velvet drapes were replaced by sky blue, satin drapes with waterfall valances. The drapes were pulled to the sides of the now silver rods, and the silvery sheer floated lightly in the breeze.  
  
Alucard did not know what Lena had done to the bat-shaped finials, but it was obvious that they have been replaced by spheres of blue topaz that sparkled in the bright sunlight.  
  
Crystal-accented, platinum-finished 6-light chandeliers hung from the thankfully unchanged ceiling, their etched marble glass shades directing blasts of light upward. Some table and accent lamps were like the chandeliers, except without crystal accents. The rest were ivory-colored fabric accent and hanging fabric table lamps with beaded accents. The last of the lighting was from pillar candles in bases that looked like beds of flowers.  
  
The plush carpet was now ivory instead of blood red, and scattered across it were octangular rugs in blue and silver floral patterns.  
  
Lena was seated in a light blue sofa, surrounded by light blue suede pillows with silver tassels. On a small table next to her were a lamp and a vase of red roses. Red...finally a familiar color. Lena was busying herself with putting pictures into frames and admiring the vases of flowers everywhere.  
  
"Hello, Adrian. Come on in, the room doesn't bite...you should know,"  
  
Alucard had a little difficulty finding his way through the maze of furniture. The room was obviously no longer so empty as it was.  
  
Lena, surrounded by comfort, looked so small and unaware. Apparently, her personality didn't think so. "Tell me, Adrian. Do you actually ever use this room for any purpose other than to keep your casket?"  
  
"YOU HAVE RUINED CENTURIES OF HISTORY!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
"That doesn't seem to be something that you would be too concerned about...well, I do think the light blue certainly enhances your eyes. Now that there's sunlight in this room, I have finally seen what you actually look light. You have very captivating eyes..."  
  
Alucard wanted to kill her. For once in his life ever since he decided his father was evil, he WANTED to kill a human. And he could. It would be easy. But would it be right?  
  
"Adrian?"  
  
"WHAT?!!!!!" Lena almost cringed. She had finally made Alucard's rage begin to explode.  
  
"...It's not just the history that I destroyed, was it? It was your own memories of times when there was actually a bit of joy in you life. Am I not right?" she thought she finally understood, but Alucard was realizing that he had taken his anger out on the wrong thing.  
  
He was finding the color of the room actually a little soothing. It actually seemed more familiar than the blood red and gold that had been removed.  
  
"Take a look outside, Adrian," said Lena. Alucard looked out a window and saw beds of roses and other beautiful flowers surrounding the castle, exaggerating the brightness of the new white picket fence. The un-evilness of it all was a little upsetting, but then...  
  
"My mother...she planted flowers...this room has been mine for always, but it wasn't always so dreary. Not when Mother was still alive..."  
  
"I'm sorry...if all the flowers and the fence make you sad, I can do something about it,"  
  
Without any form of reply, Alucard left the room.  
  
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Meanwhile...  
  
"HE IS ONE OF THEM!!!!!!!"  
  
"BUTLER!"  
  
"THEM!"  
  
"BUTLER!"  
  
"THEM!"  
  
"...oooooooh I could sell this!"  
  
"What?"  
  
Cassidy and Kelsey were avidly debating whether Alucard was one of Them or Lena's butler while Whitney was calculating the worth of the castle's properties and Serena was ranting about how wrong it was for Whitney to steal things from Lena's castle.  
  
What a perfect moment for Alucard to have entered the room.  
  
"Are you one of Them?" asked Cassidy.  
  
"Who is this 'Them' you speak of? Explain, mortal...NOW,"  
  
"I'M NOT A MORTAL! I'M A WEREDRAGON!"  
  
"A WHAT?"  
  
"SIN! He doesn't know what a weredragon is," gasped Kelsey. "HE MUST BE A BUTLER!"  
  
"I am NOT a butler of any sorts!"  
  
"Oh look at that pretty painting...I could sell this!" Whitney was currently interested in a large painting on the wall...the "lost" painting of Lisa Tepes.  
  
"Mortal, you will sell nothing!"  
  
"Yeah, what are you gonna do about it, you white-haired creepy person?! YOU WANNA TAKE THIS OUTSIDE?!"  
  
"...Whitney he has white-ish-blond-ish hair," corrected Serena. "Heh and you wouldn't stand a chance against him..."  
  
"I can sell what I want. I'm gonna ask Lena if I can have some of this stuff. It's not like tall-and-creepy owns this place,"  
  
"YOU WILL NOT STEAL ANYTHING FROM ONE OF THEM!" screamed Cassidy. "YOU INSULT!"  
  
"HE'S NOT ONE OF THEM HE'S A BUTLER DAMMIT!"  
  
"HELLO? YOU GUYS HE'S RIGHT HERE IN THE ROOM!" Serena sighed exasperatedly.  
  
"SILENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!" demanded Alucard.  
  
"GAH! I'm sorry please don't hurt me with that annoying huge sword of yours...ooooh can I sell it?" Whitney smiled nervously.  
  
~It is wrong to kill mortals...even ones like these. I have an unfair advantage...I shoudln't use the effects of my cursed bloodline for unjust causes...must. not. kill...~  
  
Alucard sighed, jaded. If he was to have any more encounters with renters like these 4, he would be extremely tempted to kill something...  
  
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Next: SPRING CLEANING *dies* 


	6. spring cleaning

Disclaimer: ok it's getting really tedious saying this over and over and over...I don't own evanescence or castlevania cause konami does and stuffs...and I don't own 'walking in a killer's wonderland' cause it's from that comic mah friend Cassidy reads...johnny the homicidal maniac or something like that...it's really funny u should read it  
  
wonder if it's better to have lena be oblivious always or eventually throw a fit about something...  
  
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"WHERE I'VE BECOME SO NUMB WITHOUT A SOUL MY SPIRIT SLEEPING SOMEWHERE COLD!"  
  
Alucard cringed when he heard the awful voice. It was another one of Lena's friends, and this one could not sing, no way in Hell or Heaven.  
  
"I don't suppose your feeble mind has figured out that this castle has an amazing echo effect,"  
  
"Um...I guess not?...Do I know you?"  
  
"No,"  
  
"Oh. OK..." the girl shrugged and kept singing...actually, she was merely screaming the lyrics.  
  
"You must be the butler person. I'm sorry, but that look is totally 700 years ago," another one of Lena's friends appeared in the hallway. "Hey Anne,"  
  
"Hi," answered Anne, before returning to screaming, this time, switching between the background and main parts. "(Wake me up) Wake me up inside (I can't wake up) Wake me up inside (Save me) call my name and save me from the dark (Wake me up) bid my blood to run (I can't wake up) before I come undone (Save me) save me from the nothing I've become!"  
  
"Have any of you seen Fuzz?" a third human entered the hallway.  
  
"No, Brandon. YOU LET THAT THING LOOSE AGAIN?!"  
  
"I didn't even know that it was gone until now. DID YOU STEAL FUZZ?!"  
  
"why would I?!"  
  
"ALL THIS TIME I CAN'T BELIEVE I COULDN'T SEE KEPT IN THE DARK BUT YOU WERE THERE IN FRONT OF ME I'VE BEEN SLEEPING A THOUSAND YEARS IT SEEMS GOT TO OPEN MY EYES TO EVERYTHING WITHOUT A THOUGHT WITHOUT A VOICE WITHOUT A SOUL DON'T LET ME DIE HERE THERE MUST BE SOMETHING MORE BRING ME TO LIFE!"  
  
~What have I done to deserve this...~  
  
"LOOK IT'S FUZZ!"  
  
a giant tarantula fell from the ceiling.  
  
Alucard sliced the spider in 2.  
  
"HEY WHAT'D YOU DO THAT FOR?! YOU OWE ME A NEW SPIDER! AND FUZZ WAS A RARE BREED TOO!!!!!!" Brandon shook his fist, a pathetic gesture.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"You'd think that a dhampire's castle, out of all places, would be under some sort of spell that prevents it from getting dusty," Lena coughed as she took down the last of the curtains in the main corridor. She felt like she was covered in a web of thick dust...so thick that it even weighed down on her eyelashes. "At least I'm done with this..."  
  
"What are you doing?"  
  
Lena almost fell off the ladder. She most definitely would have if she hadn't gotten used to Alucard appearing out of nowhere and without warning all the time.  
  
"Spring cleaning,"  
  
"What is that?"  
  
"How can you live with all this dust everywhere? *cough* I can *cough* barely *cough* breathe! Oh. Spring cleaning. Right. It's when you clean the house...at the beginning of spring. And evidently, this place is in need of it. Don't you have any zombie maids or something? Guess not. Anyway, I'm just taking these down to get dusted...and besides, now the sunlight can get in and I can finally know the difference between night and day again,"  
  
"This isn't about YOU all the time,"  
  
"I never said it was. So, can you help me with this?"  
  
"I-"  
  
"Wonderful. I'll need you to dust and sweep. It's not that hard, really. Oh, and tell me where the attic is. This place DOES have an attic...right?"  
  
"I WILL NOT-"  
  
"Of course you will. Don't be irresponsible. Everything in this place is dusty, for the exception of my room and your coffin, which somehow always looks...pretty. So how do I get to the attic?"  
  
"Why do you want to go there?"  
  
"That's where most of the useless junk that I should throw out is most likely kept,"  
  
"There is nothing there,"  
  
"Oh, but I'm sure there is. Hey, if you don't want to tell me how to get to the attic then..."  
  
"Don't call Death. You can not trust it,"  
  
"He is not an 'it'. Alright, now...DEATH!!!!!!!!!"  
  
~She is so stupid!~  
  
"Hello, Death. Can you do me a favor and take everything out of the attic?"  
  
"Everything?"  
  
"Yes. Clean it out,"  
  
"Very well, then,"  
  
"Thank you!"  
  
"I would advise you to be careful," said Alucard while grimacing about the sunlight that flooded in.  
  
"Death isn't bad. I admit, that is a bit of an oxymoron. Anyway, I have to go do...something or other,"  
  
Alucard would not dust or sweep if his miserable life depended on it. Besides, he didn't have to care. As soon as Lena and her friends could leave, Alucard would go to eternal sleep again. What did he care for a dusty castle.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"So...I can't have anything?!"  
  
"Not if you're going to sell it,"  
  
"THAT'S NOT FAIR!"  
  
"Life's not fair, Whitney. Deal with it,"  
  
"HE IS ONE OF THEM!!!!!!!!"  
  
"BUTLER!"  
  
"SHUT UP! BOTH OF YOU!" Lena was getting a migraine. "Don't you think if he was one of THEM, he would be green?!!!!!! And he'd contact the Others and take you all to Their planet?!!!!!"  
  
"I don't know..."  
  
"So I win. He's a butler,"  
  
"Just give up. Lena's never going to tell us who that is or why he's here. Why are we supposed to care anyway? Cause I don't,"  
  
"Serena's right. I'm not going to tell anything since it has no relevance,"  
  
"I swear I've seen this place in a book before..." Katie stared at the castle.  
  
"UM...it must have been some fairy tale with illustrations based on this place," reasoned Lena.  
  
"But what about those skeletons?"  
  
"Uh...I don't...know...just forget about it,"  
  
"How'd you summon the grim reaper?"  
  
"I...uh...am not sure,"  
  
"OK..."  
  
"You know something,"  
  
"NOOOOOOOOOO I don't...do people with pale skin get sunburned easily?"  
  
"Usually,"  
  
"Oh..." ~Adrian is no usual person.~ Lena's mind wandered away from everything and she remembered Alucard looking like he suffered under the sunlight. Lena had felt guilty since she knew he wasn't used to sunlight.  
  
But the Sun's rays had made Alucard look almost...angelic...if that was even possible for a half vampire.  
  
"Are you going to get rid of some of the dust around that place? It's setting off my allergies,"  
  
"I don't think I have the chance to...the place is too big," Lena knew that Alucard would never help with spring cleaning, ever. She told him to only to make herself feel more in control of things. She had always been able to make things go the way she wanted until she moved to that castle. No matter how much she pretended, she knew she couldn't be the control freak that she was anymore. When it came down to it, it was her authority versus one of someone with inhuman powers. She could only anger Alucard to some extent.  
  
"I REMEMBER NOW! IT WAS THAT BOOK!"  
  
"what?"  
  
"I remember what book I saw this castle from. 'A Guide to European Castles'," Katie nodded, sure that she was right.  
  
"Oh..." ~thank god she doesn't know what's really the deal with this place~ "Um...I have to go clean out the attic..."  
  
"Are you going to sell some of the antique junk up there?"  
  
"No, Whitney,"  
  
"Then what're you going to do with it? Just throw it away?!!!!!!!!"  
  
"Maybe. And the rest of you. If you're so anxious to get rid of the dust, there's something you can do for me..."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"This is way more than I expected..." Lena scanned the piles of...EVERYTHING that Death collected from the attic. "Oy...I hope my friends are doing ok with the jobs I gave them,"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Whoever designed this castle was drunk. 'Clean the gargoyles and statues', Lena says. 'It's not that bad,' she says," Whitney scowled. "Why does the castle corridor have to have so many different divisions. And this one I hate the most. What the hell is this thing anyway. What are you supposed to do to get to the main tower? jump up? I don't understand this...whatever happened to continuous stairs?"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Why would Lena buy a castle with a chapel in it if she isn't even religious?" Melissa walked up some stairs while wiping the dust from the stained glass windows. "This makes no sense. The stairs go up and then down and then up and then down...and I have to jump across endless-looking pits. It feels like I'm in a video game...how strange,"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"ooooooooooooooooooooh library..." Katie was in heaven. "I can read these books after I'm done doing the cleaning Lena told me to do...meh read first. Clean later," Katie picked up a random book from the nearest shelf and was about to sit down to read when she saw a demonic-like creature floating towards her. Actually, the whole study was filled with odd...things.  
  
"GAH WHAT ARE YOU?!"  
  
"We are the minotaurs, student witches, arachne, evil butchers, and ectoplasms that haunt the study, and we are going to kill you,"  
  
"You've gotta be kidding me. This is a hallucination, right?"  
  
"Your death will explain itself,"  
  
"Not funny," Katie pulled out her back-edged sword. "KILLING IS FUN!"  
  
"HA YOU THINK YOU CAN DEFEAT US? WE ARE UNDEAD!"  
  
"Student witch, huh? Can you even land your broomstick without crashing?"  
  
"Sometimes!"  
  
"Sometimes, huh? Now THAT is funny,"  
  
"KILL HER!!!!!!!" all of them rushed at Katie.  
  
"Oh, shit...DIE!!!!!!!" Katie pulled out a bastard sword for her other hand and slashed and stabbed spastically. An arachne pinned her down. "This is so not a good day...I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE! NOOOOO! HEEEEEEEEELP!!!!!!!" she heard a 'thud' and saw the butcher knives of the evil butcher who was about to cut her drop to the floor inches from her head. "Wha-"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"MAKE THE MUSIC STOP!!!!!!!" Donda crouched in a corner and covered her ears in a bad attempt to block out the inane waltz coming from every inch of the dance hall.  
  
"Would you care for some nice, hot curry?"  
  
"YOU'RE NOT ONE OF THEM!"  
  
"I am a waiter skeleton,"  
  
"...ok this is a little too creepy...AIEE!" Donda barely dodged the curry that the skeleton threw at her. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" more waiters appeared with curry. "GO AWAY!" Donda knocked some over by poking them on their foreheads and started running frantically around the dance hall. "Hmm where am I again and how do I get out of here...hey can you tell me how to get out of here? I have chronic short term memory," the nearest 'person' was a zombie officer, and he wasn't of much help to anything. "Um...ok then,"  
  
"CURRY!"  
  
"NO! NO MORE CURRY!" Donda kept running away from all the waiters and ended up in a wine cellar. "Crap. I'm lost..."  
  
and the waiter skeletons, killer dolls, zombie officers, and other homicidal maniacs weren't lost at all. They followed Donda to the wine cellar.  
  
"DON'T KILL ME! I'M A HOMICIDAL MANIAC TOOOOOOOOO! SEE SEE I EVEN KNOW THE SONG!" Donda started sing 'Walking in a Killer's Wonderland'.  
  
"Victims scream are you listening? On the floor, blood is glistening. A horrible sight, I'm happy tonight, walking in a killer's wonderland...in the basement, we can kill some los-"  
  
"ENOUGH SINGING! GET HER!"  
  
"LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!! dammit why can't I turn into a weredragon?!!!!!!!!"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Out of all places, the innerquarters. This is so boring...why did I agree to help clean this place. What Lena needs is a good staff of maids...speaking of maids..." Axe noticed a few maids that had appeared out of nowhere. "Maybe she did hire maids...so I guess I don't have to do anything? But...why do the maids act like they know martial arts...and why do they look like they're going to attack me..."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"I'm not doing this. Hell no," Whitney gave up before even starting and went to find Lena and tell her someone else would have to clean the castle corridor...  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"I wonder how they're doing with the cleaning..." Lena decided to check on her friends, first going to the castle corridor to find Whitney. ~with her work ethic, there's no way she could have gotten far~ "ohmygod. WHITNEY! BATS!!!!!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"BATS! RUN! DUCK! DO SOMETHING!"  
  
"EEEEE WHERE'D THAT THING COME FROM"  
  
"SHUT UP AND RUN!" ~what did Adrian say? About his father's minions coming after the humans in this castle? it just might have been good to pay more attention on that matter...~ "...Adrian?"  
  
Alucard did what he did best: appearing out of nowhere and killing things, 'things' being, fortunately, the bats and not Whitney or Lena.  
  
"IF THAT HAPPENS AGAIN-"  
  
"It will, Whitney. I know it will,"  
  
"If you knew this would happen, why didn't you tell me?!"  
  
"...Minor detail? Actually, I forgot Adrian's warning until now,"  
  
Alucard cut into the pointless conversation. "How many of your friends are wandering around the castle?"  
  
"13, including Whitney,"  
  
"I have already found the ones in the chapel, study, and dance hall,"  
  
"Next, Axe is in the innerquarters!"  
  
"The demon maids..."  
  
"Whitney, go get whoever isn't cleaning back to your part of the castle and don't let anyone wander!"  
  
"What are you going to do?"  
  
"I'm the one who knows where my 'helpers' are, so I have to go with Adrian,"  
  
"ok...don't go and get yourself killed..."  
  
"You're insane. You'll just get in my way. Not only would I have to get to your worthless friends in time and keep them from getting killed or captured for torture, I would also have to worry about protecting you! Your tagging along would slow me down," hypothesized Alucard.  
  
"MY friends, not yours,"  
  
"I'm not going to waste time arguing with you,"  
  
"Then it's settled. I'm going,"  
  
"Fine,"  
  
------------------------------------------  
  
So much for cleaning the castle, and there's still all that stuff from the attic...13 minus 4 would leave 9 friends unaccounted for, and that would be around...50 different types of minions to get rid of. This will be a long day... 


	7. traumatized

Disclaimer: I don't own cvness or mansonness, but speaking of manson, my friend andrew got a ticket from his uncle for the grotesque burlesque concert and i told him to get me a t-shirt or sumpthin and he was like "ok whatever" YAY! ^^  
  
A/N: this gets confusing...I think what the voices in my head are trying to get at is that Lena is traumatized or something...  
  
---------------------------------  
  
"What do you mean the worst isn't here yet? How can it get any worse than this?!"  
  
"The bosses are not resurrected,"  
  
"...ok well considering how dangerous the lower-class minions are, I just can't wait to meet the bosses,"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"That is SO cool. How did you jump out of the mirror like that? I wanna know!" said Axe when a Kyoma Demon and Valkyrie magically (geez that sounds prettyish) stepped out of a mirror and tried to attack her. "Um...ok I guess you don't go for conversation. HA I WILL KEEEEEEEL YOU!" Axe pulled out an, well, axe, the blade of which was 3 times the size of her head, and the staff was more than her height.  
  
The demons didn't shrink in fear.  
  
"AXE DON'T DO ANYTHING!!!!!!!!"  
  
"...Lena? Hey you wouldn't believe this some creepy demons are trying to kill me! ha ha ...um...oh hi butler person,"  
  
The demons didn't make conversation, and they didn't want others to either. They advanced towards Axe VERY slowly. Why? They knew they had time. Sure, she had an axe...but a human is a human, after all.  
  
Alucard killed them without even having to poke them with his sword. It was like he had used air or...something...it seemed extremely Asian-martial-arts-like.  
  
"Whoa...butlers don't do that..." Axe stared dully at Alucard. "Hey...do you think you could train my sword skills or something...?"  
  
"No," Lena whacked Axe on the forehead. "What do you think he is, cooperative or patient or something NORMAL like that?! Go to where everyone else is supposed to be and stay there,"  
  
"Why? You can't ground me,"  
  
"I'm not. I'm just beginning to comprehend what this place is about..."  
  
"Hey, I think while we were busy talking, that man left..."  
  
"That is just so like him. NO MANNERS. Alright, let's go. If he doesn't get to the others, I will...bury him in silver or something," ~what kind of a plan is that?! he is a DHAMPIRE, Lena, not VAMPIRE~  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
So maybe it wasn't such a good idea having Whitney try to keep things in order. Everyone was freaking out and kept prodding Lena for answers that she couldn't exactly decide whether to give or not for moral reasons.  
  
But she had to. Had to make them understand...  
  
"ok...just calm down. Think about this. Katie, you almost figured it out last time. This castle should seem familiar to all of you. Not because it was built by some medieval anarchy or because it was in an illustration for a fairy tale, but...ok...this place is in Romania. What have you heard about Romania that relates to big, deserted castles?"  
  
"Deserted? Does that mean that man here is renting too?"  
  
"...Not...exactly. He's been here for a really long time..." she almost said "for centuries"...but they had no clue yet.  
  
"Then what do you mean?"  
  
"Romania. Think Romania. And the mountains. Transylvania-type region..."  
  
"We don't get it,"  
  
"VAMPIRES DAMMIT! VAMPIRES!!!!!!!!"  
  
everyone blinked once almost at the exact same time. Whenever Lena screamed, by habit, they closed their ears to the bitter sound and saved the words for processing later. No such chance this time. The processing had to be done here and now.  
  
"He's a vampire? Did he bite you?" very nice. Only about 5 seconds of reaction time. This child would have to be rewarded. But then again, what kind of a question was "did he bite you?"  
  
"No. He is a Dhampire...half human, which implies that he is not...evil...I would hope...The point is, I bought the place thinking it was empty, but then there's Adrian. He insisted that I leave...and for a good reason. But I did not listen because it was not like I could receive a refund for this castle. That is why I asked you all to come live here for a while. When I'm paid enough money, I'm moving out. At least...that was the plan..."  
  
"You had a picket fence constructed and everything,"  
  
~and the room. Don't forget the room. and the cleaning. and the flowers...~  
  
"Maybe he's the one resurrecting all the minions,"  
  
"No,"  
  
"He's the son of a VAMPIRE. You're really stupid, you know that?"  
  
"Yes," ~I am stupid. He tried to help me. I only hurt him~  
  
"I'm not staying here anymore. I'll give you my money. Don't worry about that. But I'm leaving, now,"  
  
Everybody started getting ideas. They all pulled out checkbooks. Frantically, the amount boxes on the checks were filled with 1 followed by more than several 0's. Then they were shoved into Lena's hands. She stared distantly at the checks and went to her room. But instead of getting ready to leave, she just sat on the sofa, hugging her knees while staring at the handwritings of the friends she had profited from. The friends who now thought she had tricked them into walking into a castle of death and blood, not intending for any of them to walk back out still human or alive...  
  
And then he was there.  
  
~have you found them...~  
  
"Why are you still here?"  
  
"In your room, dhampire?"  
  
"No. Your...acquaintances are stumbling over one another on their way out,"  
  
~I know what you're thinking, Adrian. You had thought that I had intelligence enough to know to join them. But I'm not~  
  
"Let them, then,"  
  
-----------------------------------------------------  
  
very short chappie. i kno. i've not getting anywhere right now with the voices in my head, so i sorta kinda need you pplz to vote for whether lena should end up staying at the castle or leaving...yeah...^^ pweese...i've never really finished any one of my fics. i'm trying to make this the first but apparently, i'm getting into the same problem as always so HELP MEEEEEEEEE  
  
and thankees for reviewing ^^ 


	8. You're Just a THING

disclaimer: i don't own cv...*eyes get big and watery) LAMENT OF INNOCENCE CAME OUT WOOOOOOOOOOT yayness  
  
a/n: thankees for the reviews and ideas ur right lena shouldn't be so laid-back about all the insanity *nods* ^^  
  
----------------------------------  
  
"Alright you know what?! No!"  
  
"...No...what?"  
  
"No as in no, I don't allow this!"  
  
"..."  
  
"DON'T GIVE ME THAT BLANK STARE! YOU KNOW PERFECTLY WELL WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! Dracula and things pertaining to vampires is a myth! A legend! Why do I have to learn the supposed truth? Something, no, EVERYTHING, about this isn't right!"  
  
Her mood had done a 180. Just a few seconds before, she had been a little too calm. Now...this...  
  
"My friends made a VERY good point before they left! You could be doing...all this! I refused to believe them! You know why?! Because I trusted you! But how can I expect YOU to be CIVILIZED?! You are a half-vampire. I know. Your mother was human. I know. But how does that change anything?!"  
  
~it changes everything~ if it wasn't for the fact that this must have been the 1000th time he's heard an insult like that, Alucard would have grimaced or somehow show that he was hurting.  
  
"You are not a vampire. But who says that you can't be as evil as one?! You are not human. That is apparent. So what are you? You use the word 'dhampire'. But that's not what you are. Really, you're not much of anything. Really, when it comes down to it, you are just...a thing,"  
  
That word..."thing"...she was using it as a sword to impale him. One not-so-clean stab through his heart.  
  
"Go ahead, Adrian. Do your disappearing act. If you kill me, it won't change anything. Even more so, you will be a thing,"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Childhood memories. Those were something he'd rather not venture into. But what that human had said about him...  
  
His mother used to reassure him the exact opposite. He'd always known what he really was...using a word like "dhampire" couldn't mask his self-contempt. And his mother was always there to wipe his tears and, in doing so, try to erase his resentment...his anguish...his grief.  
  
"My dear child," she'd say in her always soft and soothing voice. "You must not listen to them," 'them' referred to the other humans...all of whom hated Alucard. Sometimes, they would dare to throw rocks at him. This became increasingly difficult to do as Adrian avoided going outside his father's castle.  
  
"Why shouldn't I listen to them? What if what they say is true?"  
  
"It isn't. You are NOT a thing. That is a horrible and harsh word to describe someone as angelic as you are,"  
  
Angelic. The amount of irony that one word contained was really too much. Although...he DID look angelic with his flaxen hair and unblemished skin. He was beautiful to the extent that the humans found him to be monstrous-looking. More irony. His life was just full of that.  
  
"But even if I do look 'angelic'...that doesn't change what I am inside,"  
  
"You are angelic inside as well. You feel what humans feel. You can love, and your dear little heart can weep even more than the other children,"  
  
"But I am also evil,"  
  
"Yes, and that is why you deserve sympathy more than all of us. Your kindness is always at conflict with the instincts that your father gave you, and you feel terrible for it,"  
  
he nodded.  
  
"It is not your fault. It is never your fault..."  
  
he loved hugs. He was safe in his mother's embrace. But she would have to let go...and then the feelings of self-loathing would return to torment him for all eternity.  
  
"Adrian, I will not live as long as you will...but...you understand that I will always be with you?"  
  
"Yes, mother..." as joyous as his mother wanted that to sound, Adrian knew what she really meant. That she would die. Soon. At the hands of those who she devoted her life to.  
  
"Reminiscing, are we?" Death. He always showed up at the worst times.  
  
"It's not quite so gleeful,"  
  
"She is influenced by a mortal mind. Only in a miracle, would she have absolutely no prejudice against you,"  
  
"My mother was a mortal,"  
  
"There's a very big difference between your mother and Lena. Your mother is your mother. She loves you unconditionally. Lena doesn't have that kind of connection,"  
  
"...Why're you trying to help?"  
  
"Please. I'm Death. I'm hated by those who are healthy. I'm the best friend of the sick, dying, and depressed. Speaking of which, Lena isn't exactly the happiest mortal right now,"  
  
"I knew it. You were just waiting for an excuse to take her,"  
  
"Well it's not like you're going to miss her,"  
  
"..."  
  
"Ah, yes, the infamous blank stare. You really don't disguise your moments of deep thought very well," the shoulders poking through Death's cloak shook with laughter. "Tell you what, Mr. Sunshine, it's not exactly the time planned for her to die, so I'll give her another chance,"  
  
"..."  
  
"You're welcome, Alucard,"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Lena stared scornfully at the coffin in the hallway. She bought the place. It belonged to HER. There should be no sharing! That THING should leave her alone and take his damn minions with him. She should be able to carry out her architectural plans without any reason to hold back. Lena mumbled curses and kicked the mahogany box. Determined to turn her attention back to kicking out the castle's other inhabitants by remodeling the whole place, Lena proceeded to open cans of paint samples.  
  
While using the coffin as a bench and silently admiring colors of ice jade and various shades of sapphire and plum, Lena blocked out all other thoughts and neglected to notice another demon showing up. And this was a special demon.  
  
"You really are a stupid human,"  
  
Lena glanced up, momentarily ignoring the paints. The speaker was a woman who looked fairly normal except for the bat wings on her back. And this woman just couldn't keep her big mouth shut.  
  
"I don't see why Alucard wanted to protect you. You're not very pretty either. No, actually, you're quite ugly,"  
  
Lena raised one eyebrow. "And what are YOU?"  
  
"A beautiful creature, if I do say so myself,"  
  
~I'm really getting nowhere with this thing~  
  
"I can understand a half-breed lusting for Maria Renard, but...well, she wasn't exactly gorgeous either,"  
  
~slightly egotistical, are we now?~  
  
"Who?"  
  
"You have not heard of Maria? What a surprise..."  
  
"Not too pleasantly,"  
  
"Hmm,"  
  
"And I suppose, since you're so 'beautiful', Adrian is just about in love with you?" Lena chuckled and shook her head.  
  
"What do you find so funny?"  
  
"Nothing. So what are you, really?"  
  
"The succubus,"  
  
"Alright, then, Miss Succubus, you'd better listen here," Lena's temple twitched slightly as she dipped a rough-bristled brush into a violet shade of paint and, in one sweeping motion, drew an unwavering line between her and the succubus. She pointed the brush to the succubus' face and narrowed her eyes. "You stay on your side," she shook the brush menacingly, splashing paint all over the succubus' pale skin.  
  
"You expect me to listen to you and a stripe on the floor?!"  
  
"No. I expect you to fuck off, so kindly do so,"  
  
"Make me,"  
  
"I have better things to do. Make yourself,"  
  
The succubus snarled and lunged at Lena but only succeeded in bumping smack into Death.  
  
"Leave the human be,"  
  
"What?"  
  
"You heard me. Run off and rant about your pettiness somewhere else,"  
  
"Fine. But it's PRETTINESS. Not pettiness," the succubus promptly disappeared.  
  
"AND DON'T FORGET TO STAY ON YOUR SIDE!" she shook the paintbrush again and a small puddle of paint dropped next to the line.  
  
"You shouldn't purposely anger them,"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"You've seen how helpless they are against Alucard, but they are still living dead. Weak living dead, but living dead nonetheless. And you are human. So no matter how weak they are compared to the master's son, they can easily rip you to shreds,"  
  
"Pfft," she threw the brush back into the paint can and rhythmically swirled the thick liquid.  
  
"Which goes to show 'what' Alucard is. If he can beat the minions to a bloody pulp, and the minions can beat you, by simple transitivity, he can kill you without trying,"  
  
"I know that,"  
  
"You observe, but you do not analyze. Have you thought about WHY he doesn't care for killing you? For even laying a finger on you?"  
  
"Not that I care, but considering how worthless of an opponent I am, it's obvious he has better ways of wasting his special talents,"  
  
"...Not my point,"  
  
"Heh,"  
  
"It does make a difference...who and what his mother was,"  
  
"I bet you will now give me a sermon about that,"  
  
"All you need to know are her last words. Even Alucard doesn't know. His mother wished for Dracula to not try to avenge her death by going after the blood of her murderers, 'for theirs is already a hard lot,'"  
  
"She was murdered?"  
  
"Beside the point,"  
  
"..."  
  
"The point is...Alucard's mother was pure and kind. She passed on her humanity to him. So, you see, he can't be all bad. In fact, he isn't bad at all,"  
  
"Yes, I'm sure you'd like me to believe that,"  
  
"I do because it is true,"  
  
"Why are you being a mediator?"  
  
"Why does everyone keep asking me this?! Because I take them when it's time, and it's not your time, and I shouldn't do my job poorly by indulging in unscheduled death!"  
  
"How...honorable..."  
  
"Indeed,"  
  
"Note my sarcasm? Hey...since your job is taking people to the other side, why are you hanging out over here?"  
  
"This is the house of my master,"  
  
"Who is dead,"  
  
"They are loyal to their master...who will always live,"  
  
"In other words, they're not leaving,"  
  
"If you see it that way,"  
  
~I'm gonna MAKE them leave~  
  
"Anyway, I can not make you believe me. I can only hope that you follow the truth," Death conveniently ends the conversation by disappearing. Lena leaned against the wall and came to the simple conclusion that even if Death was right, all she knew for sure was that she wanted all the minions out of her castle, meaning that Alucard had to go.  
  
------------------------------------------  
  
yay for dialogue! heh ok i'm stuck...once again...must find some means of scaring the demons away without provoking them to kill Lena first...*blinks* i got nothing...comical death hehehe um...yeah...oooooooh i just got an idea...but...it's sorta stupid...so...heh  
  
next chappie: Can't Sleep...Demons will Eat Me... 


	9. Dying in a Tower

disclaimer: *cuts and pastes* i don't own cv or any of the "_______ for Dummies" books...but those are amusing...  
  
a/n: thanksgiving break is so boring...i'm so bored i feel compelled to look at pics of my ex-boyfriend...must...work...on...fic...  
  
CHAPTER 9: CAN'T SLEEP...DEMONS WILL EAT ME...  
  
------------------------------------  
  
She highly doubted that the demons were actually staying on their side. She didn't expect them to take that line seriously. She didn't expect herself to take that line seriously. But...for whatever reason...the demons haven't tried anything.  
  
It was well past midnight. Lena was stiffly seated on her bed with the savior, a cup of coffee, in her hands, gripping the cup so tightly that she cut off circulation to herself. She had come to the not-so-impossible conclusion that the demons were conspiring to eat her during the night. And that was all she'd been able to think about since around 9 PM. Hoping that reading would take her mind off of demons, Lena took a huge gulp of coffee and took the first volume off of a monumental stack of novels next that she had conveniently piled next to herself.  
  
"Legacy of Blood; The Vampire Encyclopedia for Dummies" a high-pitched scream escaped her throat. "I didn't put that with the other ones..." the demons had made their first move. One of them had to have some type of invisibility power and had come into her room and put the book there. "More...coffee..." but the pot of coffee she had brought to her room with her was now cold. And cold coffee wasn't good for anything. Which meant...to her great displeasure...that Lena had to go out of her room and wander until she finds a kitchen. "Well...maybe there's enough left in the cup to last through the night," She peered into the china and only found despair. Her last gulp of coffee really was her last.  
  
"OK...maybe I can read until morning..." she took the next volume off of the pile. "Voices". That didn't seem too bad. Turning to the second page, the dedication, Lena read, "To The Voices inside my head. You are my life and inspiration," well, perhaps the author meant it as a joke. She flipped to the first page of the story.  
  
"The Voices told me to. The Voices are never wrong. Therefore, it would be only natural and logical to always listen to the Voices. They wish me no harm..."  
  
The book turned out to be a twisted horror about murder and true insanity. At last, the trembling in Lena's hands was not only from caffeine. Only an hour has passed, and she was already on the last page of the 800-page book. It was at times like this that she wished she wasn't a speed reader.  
  
//The Voices told me to kill. "I WILL DROWN YOU IN THE VERY LIQUID THAT KEEPS YOU ALIVE! I WILL REPAINT MY ROOM IN YOUR BLOOD!" the Voices cackled through my mouth. My joy was theirs and their anticipation was mine. "See, the walls are turning brown. They must be restored to the glorious, glistening red that they were and should be!"//  
  
Lena visualized the paragraphs. The insane narrator tortured her victim using various items including safety pins and dull butter knifes. Perhaps, under different circumstances, the ridiculous story would have seemed humorous...perhaps if Lena wasn't living in Dracula's castle. She stared at the book, blinking about 13 dozen times. All she could think of, now that the book was read, was coffee. She was too tired and her eyelids too droopy.  
  
How could she possibly run away when the demons came? If her determination to obtain hot coffee was strong enough, which one can assure that it certainly was, she would find the will to walk outside her room and get her damn coffee.  
  
Armed with a book to throw at ambushing demons, Lena stumbled to the door. Her shaking hands struggled to turn the door knob. "Do it for the coffee!" the doorknob turned. She pulled the door open not even enough to look out into the hallway. ~Can I do this? I can't do this. No. Even coffee is not worth this. I bet that bitch the Succubus is waiting out there right now with a boxful of dull cutlery, just waiting to gradually saw me with rusted butter knifes. But the coffee! I should just run out there. Or I can run away. No. I want coffee. If I run...but she's immortal. I can't run away. Maybe she killed that Maria person too. COFFEE!!!!!! No...I'll die...but...coffee......I want my coffee, dammit!~  
  
She threw the door open. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" the resonating note continued as she squeezed her eyes shut and threw the book.  
  
"...Ow...Damn it all..."  
  
"...Neh?" Lena opened one eye. "...Adrian?"  
  
"Last I recall, mortals go to sleep at night." his voice was laced with various emotions surrounding anger and irritation ready to run over. He was just about ready to trample her himself.  
  
"You-d-CAN'T SLEEP! MUST HAVE COFFEE! DEMONS WILL EAT MEEEEEEEEEEEE! YOU'RE ONE OF THEM! YOU'LL POKE OUT MY EYES WITH A SAFETY PIN AND DANCE WILDLY! GET AWAY FROM ME! EVIL, GO BACK TO WHENCE YOU CAME!!!!!!" she managed to coordinate her limbs with her mind's commands and ran, but adrenaline could not overpower her fatigue. Her legs buckled, and she found herself eye-level with alucard's shiny boots.  
  
~Lord, grant me a sign if my suspicions are true...~ Alucard waited, but nothing stirred. ~Damn. She isn't possessed by Satan. I have no excuse to execute her~ He bent down and pulled Lena up. She twitched at his touch partly because his skin was at a constant temperature of Slightly Above Absolute Zero and partly because:  
  
"DON'T EAT ME! DON'T STICK PINS IN ME! LORD, SAVE ME! LET GO OF ME!" she brought the coffee cup to his wrist. The fine china cup shattered, edges of broken porcelain making incisions in his skin as well as hers. But his wounds closed up while Lena continued to bleed. She was about to hyperventalite. Then, she traced her injuries to her dead coffee cup and started crying.  
  
Really crying. Waterfalls of salt-water rushed down her cheeks. Her enormous eyes sparkled depressingly as she wailed.  
  
Alucard winced. If there was one thing he hated as much as he hated his father, it was the sound of a human weeping. Especially a human girl. Not that it created any sentimentality in him. It was just annoying! His plans to reclaim his coffin were not about to be foiled by a tearful human. He needed to get rid of her.  
  
"You should take care of that..." he glanced at the cuts in her arm. Lena stared almost uninterestedly at the blood stains on her clothes, half-paranoid.  
  
"Adrian, don't let the demons eat me..."  
  
"You said I am one of them,"  
  
"Don't let the demons eat me," she stared at his face but not into his eyes. Then, she reached for tendrils of flaxen hair framing his face and compared them to her own dark locks, shining a brilliant silver under even the dimmest lighting.  
  
"...You're pretty," she almost smiled. Saying nothing else, she retreated to Alucard's room.  
  
~I'm...pretty...?~  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Alucard sat in a dark corner of the floating tower. His mother's words rang in his head. "...angelic creature..." they mixed with Lena's spastic phrase. "You're pretty." When he was merely 100 years old, he had a mortal friend. Of course, she didn't know that he was a "thing". He met her by a creek. Water was always a calming agent. It slightly muted the voices in his head that mocked him and hated him...voices that were his own.  
  
The little girl was admiring the smooth rocks that were washed onto the shore. Eventually, she diverted her attention to the bigger rocks beneath the rippling waters.  
  
Alucard never figured out why she was by the creek without anyone else. Especially since it had been raining profusely and the creek waters were roaring and flooding the bank. And that girl was taking a step into the creek. She was so tiny...she would drown...  
  
"Stay where you are,"  
  
She turned around and noticed him for the first time. A sweet smile of innocence that only a mortal girl's face could carry lit her face. "Are you an angel?"  
  
"Not any more than you are,"  
  
She frowned in confusion and shuffled to where he sat, then got on her knees in front of him, meticulously inspecting his vampiric perfection. "You look like an angel..." she was mesmerized by the chilling painting that was his face. Even the most renowned painter in all of history could not capture the facets of the liquid crystals that were his eyes.  
  
"It would be vain and shallow-excuse my rudeness-to base such profound findings on appearance alone,"  
  
"Perhaps you do not remember!"  
  
"...I am not an angel,"  
  
"You are an angel in my eyes!" she pouted and crossed her chubby arms. Human toddlers were so...cute..."I am Ella. What is your name?"  
  
"Adrian..."  
  
"I like you, Adrian. You're pretty. And you don't tease me like other boys do...where do you live?"  
  
"Uh..."  
  
"Are you my friend now?"  
  
"I suppose..."  
  
The smile returned. She stood up and ran away.  
  
Humans were capable of liking him...as long as they didn't know what he was...that was why Alucard preferred to be alone. It didn't matter if he had friends like Ella. When she found out what he was, she became just another mortal who feared and hated.  
  
"...Adrian?" Lena peered into the room. "I've been looking for you...I've been thinking...and...what I mean to say is...I'm not leaving. And evidently, if I'm staying, all those creatures have to go...you're leaving,"  
  
So she didn't remember anything from last night.  
  
"Would it be too difficult to understand a simple fact I have come across in my time? My staying and going has no effect on my father's servants,"  
  
"You lie. You are your father's son..."  
  
"Certainly, but am I not also my mother's son? You, yourself, had said that being my mother's son means nothing...so why would it mean something to be my father's son?"  
  
"Don't you try twisting my own words..." the anger that warmed her blood was not surprising. But was alarming...because it was divinely enticing...  
  
He couldn't. He promised. No. It was stronger than a promise. It was a vow. A sacred vow. Were these conflicting feelings what made him a Thing?  
  
"Why should I believe you?"  
  
"Is that really the question you mean to ask?"  
  
"What are you talking about? What other question would I have?!"  
  
"Not quite what YOU wish to ask, but THE question. Do you not hear yourself asking it?"  
  
"...No..." she folded her arms and stared at the floor. Typical of a human...trying to put up a facade of confidence when he could taste the confusion and fear.  
  
"Really, the subject to ponder is why should I allow you to stay here?"  
  
"That's stupid. Clearly because I bought the castle,"  
  
"Under false information. The realtor had no actual rights to sell you MY castle, so it is not yours,"  
  
"If you're so smart, why didn't you appear out of nowhere the day she showed me this place and say something about that?" she was really steamed now. Yet, she was hoping he'd stay there on the other side of the room, far away from her. Alucard could hear her thoughts...hear them praying for him to not move an inch.  
  
"Why make the effort?" just to spite her, he left the dark corner and wasn't so far away from her anymore. Lena pressed herself into the wall behind her. The blocks of stone jabbed and grated her as if they were alive and attacking her just like the minions.  
  
"~Look at me,~" his mouth wasn't moving and yet, Lena could hear his voice. It seemed to come from within her own head. "~Look at me,~"  
  
How amusing it was to scare a human once in a while. He was so menacingly beautiful. It didn't take good lighting to see that. Alucard was like a priceless sculpture with finishing touches so carefully and repeatedly applied. Artwork beyond superiority to all others that he was worthy of having a museum just for him. "~look at me,~" she was his slave.  
  
Eyes is too common a word to name the simple features of his face with which he caught and bound her.  
  
Deliquescent, frigid, placid, ablaze, empty...only a few unworthy adjectives.  
  
He heard her mind screaming for him to look away. She was about to die...her soul extracted through her eyes. The screaming wasn't verbal, but he could hear it so clearly. The pleading. Hating. Hurting. Crying.  
  
Alucard averted his glance, but the feeling of falling into something horrible yet longed for was still in the human. And she knew...then...there was no way she could make him leave. He could convince her just by looking at her to commit suicide before he could make him take even one step away.  
  
She limply slid to the floor. Her head hung, and bolts of the fine black silk that was her hair fell over her face.  
  
Alucard hated those weakling humans. He couldn't stand being there, watching the effects of his vile powers for another second.  
  
She pictured his face in her mind. It frightened her to know that the centuries-old, half-dead creature could coerce her to love him if he chose to toy with her compassion like that. His pulchritude was haunting...enrapturing in so many ways. It was ageless. Endless. Timeless. Impeccable. ~Great. Now I'm admiring him like he was some antiquity...~  
  
It drove her mad. He was ancient. But he was the very definition of alluring. In every dictionary with illustrations for things that would be hard to describe with words, his portrait would be next to "alluring" and all other synonyms. She could see it. Alluring (e-loo-r-ing) adj. insanely beautiful. See picture.  
  
She fully saw this now. She fully understood that if worse came to worst, she could end up giving her life to him. Her only escape was to leave...something that she could not bring herself to do.  
  
-----------------------------------------  
  
the humans never win.... 


	10. Welcome back, Arikado

disclaimer: *rolls eyes and walks away* duh...*grabs arikado by his prettiful head of black hair and shoves him towards the disclaimer* ya think I could have thought of this? *ponders*  
  
well actually in a way don't you think cv is sorta a fanwork off of bram stoker's dracula? which by the way that book according to modern standards is way boring...aaaaaanyway so here we go bram stoker was pretty much the father of vampire stuff. How unfortunate he wasn't alive to gather the fortune he could have made off of people using his idea of Dracula to create all sorts of other stuff...  
  
and then we have Anne Rice, who, quite sadly, does not give permission for fanfiction.net pplz to write fanfics of her works...brilliant lady she is. that drives me insane. her books are a far stretch from cv and stoker but marius reminds me so much of alucard...*sighs* and armand too of course armand...if his hair was a little blonder, that is...*droolz* um yeah  
  
and then in the artistic category we have the master of gothic anime, ayami kojima, who makes such delicious illustrations of the cv charas...I tried drawing a copy of one of her non-cv works it took me 2 days to draw and 1 day to shade everything...*shakes head* that was complicated...my only complaint about her is after a while her paintings begin to look the same...like I almost mistook Leon for Juste once...  
  
and then IGA who creates the cv games so anyway...  
  
see how I admire those pplz? see how I talk about them like dieties or something? That's cause I can never be anything close to what they are, never have talents like theirs. Hence my point is...  
  
I DON'T OWN CV NOW LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!! *broods in corner* oh and i don't own anything dickensien either...  
  
heh that's the best disclaimer I've ever written maybe I'll stick it onto all my chappies now...o.O  
  
-------------------------------------  
  
Autumn was pervading the country. Every morning, Lena stood loyal to her balcony-Alucard's balcony, actually-and watched the color palette of the forest. She studied and observed with the determination of pursuing a life-long hobby the quick changes of green to eventual blood red.  
  
The dhampire had recently reclaimed his room with little convincing. Lena had flat-out told him the room was his again and in a voice laced with fear. Fear that was well-hidden from human hearing...not him. He felt slightly guilty, but he was pleased with the emotions he had finally grinded into her.  
  
With great reluctance, he handed permission for her to stare at trees from his balcony every morning. It gave him an opportunity to make his own observations of her illogical fascination with the changing of seasons.  
  
"Surely, if you religiously study the process every year, you must have had enough,"  
  
"...Not really. I always feel like I've missed a large part of it...or maybe even the whole thing. I guess you wouldn't know the feeling. You'll live forever. Plenty of time to procrastinate about enjoying pointless things like this,"  
  
So it meant that much to her. Even if he could see into a human's soul...read their thoughts, know them better than they did...he couldn't understand their passions. Such randomness was beyond even his preternatural comprehension.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
She was standing there at the French doors once again. Most of the leaves have dried and fallen a week ago. Why was she still on her color quest? She felt the foggy glass with the tips of her fingers and didn't bother to open the doors. "Frost..." she walked out of the room without even trying to looks his way.  
  
Presently, she was outside the castle, kneeling beside the white picket fence and her flowers, observing them. Blandly shattering the frosted petals in her pale hands.  
  
Her despondency was typical of humans. But it couldn't be typical of her. Alucard could remember the first day the mortal came to live in Castlevania. She had been so bold and careless. Her ego only increased until she realized what could ultimately end her life. Does she remember the nerve she had to unhesitantly hold a dhampire's hand? Does she wonder how it-the courage-vanished so suddenly? How her life crumbled?  
  
Alucard, despite himself, noticed how pale her skin was now. Pale from anxiety. Pale from fear. Pale from life itself. She used to have a healthy glow to her skin. Sometimes, her cheeks were even rosy. Alucard, as a child, had always wanted skin like that. Skin like a human's. He wanted mortality.  
  
Now that Lena was pale, there was a certain delicate quality in her features that he had never noticed before. Her movements were always of aristocratic grace, but the extreme health of her flesh...the color...it had always overpowered her other appearance. Now...he saw. She was fragile. Frail in a humanly pretty sense.  
  
He almost felt guilty again.  
  
Almost.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"I think you should dye your hair...black,"  
  
He glared at her in reply. "A little too much coffee for you today, human?" Alucard reached for the coffee cup in Lena's hand. In the other, she held the saucer at such an angle that made her look like she was planning to throw it at him.  
  
"No. I think you should dye your hair black. And maybe get colored contact lenses," she didn't quite care about giving up her coffee, for she was DEEP in thought..."blue...not sapphire blue. I think a very light blue would be nice. Ice-blue...with a touch of gray,"  
  
~...how...no I'm not paranoid...she can't possibly know about my other form...Arikado...~  
  
"Yes, blue-gray. And cut your hair...but it suits your face so well when it's long. Maybe just shoulder-length, then...black with just a tinge of navy blue near the bangs. That'd be good,"  
  
"And how would you plan to go about this plan of yours to reform me?"  
  
"I'm going shopping today. I'll get some hair dye and lenses...maybe bring home a stylist...I'll buy you a suit too. Yes, you'd need new clothes to match the outfit. Don't look at me like that. It's almost New Years. You need new clothes to match the hair. You can't be 13th century forever,"  
  
~Yes I can~ "You will not do that,"  
  
"I might," she stood up and put on her suede jacket. "I'm going shopping. Have a nice day," then she mumbled, "notetoselfpickup4lattes"  
  
Alucard sighed. In order to prevent her from carrying out the great expectations, he'd have to follow her to the city...  
  
So much for seclusion until the end of the world.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Let's get you fitted for a suit,"  
  
"...The whole point of me being here is to not let you go about doing that..."  
  
"Aren't we Mr. Grumpmeister today,"  
  
Alucard could feel his temples bulging out of his head.  
  
"Awww come on, Adrian! Look, everyone else is happy! Get into the holiday spirit!...even though Christmas was a few days ago heh...but anyway see the disgusting number of smiling faces around you? It wouldn't kill you to be one of them for a day. Hell, you might fake it so well, you'd stop being so depressed..."  
  
She hasn't talked so much ever since that day in the tower. She was almost like her old self!  
  
~What is it about these last few weeks of the year that make humans so joyful?~  
  
"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease, Adrian?" Lena clasped her hands and her face turned pleading and innocent. Like a little child's...didn't she ever act her age?!  
  
"You're the typical black-winged angel with an incinerated halo today,"  
  
"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease, Adrian?"  
  
For some reason, he couldn't think of a reason against it...  
  
-----------------------------------------  
  
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...heh...Lena turns Alucard back into Arikado without even knowing what the hell she's doing...fun... 


	11. Industrial Metal

disclaimer: i don't own cv...or rammstein  
  
shopping XD oh this is going to be fun...  
  
------------------------------  
  
Perhaps it would be stupid to wonder why Lena and Alucard got blank stares as they walked into the shop. But summaries never did anyone any bad, did they?  
  
Lena. The semi-average human. 5'2'' 115 LB not bad-looking and not supermodel material either...a girl with a lot of cash to burn wearing extremely beat up jeans and a plain shirt that probably cost a ridiculously pretty penny.  
  
And Alucard. God, what could we say about him? 6' something...who's keeping track? He probably stoops to look more "normal"...but really, he's not trying that hard. Waist-length blonde hair in soft waves and curls. The last time guys had hair like that-guys who weren't hippies-was...well...it wasn't yesterday. Or last year. Or the last decade even. Maybe in a Boticelli painting...  
  
Alucard wearing an intimidating costume...especially with the sword. All that and...he looks about ready to kill someone.  
  
The 13th century Wannabe towering over an impractical, spoiled lemming.  
  
If that doesn't attract attention, what would?!  
  
"...Uh...may I help you?" one of the employees timidly approached the pair, warily eyeing Alucard's sword. ~What an odd man. He must have come from a costume party...but the outfit is so well put together, it looks disturbingly real and fake at the same time~  
  
"I think so. We need to see a tailor,"  
  
"They are busy at the moment...Would...uh...are you in a hurry?"  
  
"Oh, no. We can wait,"  
  
"...Thank...you..." he stared at Alucard one more time and walked away as if he'd just seen an UFO and had forgotten to take a picture of it.  
  
"We should not bother them...since they are attending to people who actually intend to wear the clothes they are being measured for,"  
  
"If they don't want to be bothered, they shouldn't have taken this job. OOOOOOOH HATS!" she looked at him and then gave up the idea. "Hats would not suit you...not with the hair,"  
  
"You will not cut my hair,"  
  
"Well of course not. The stylist will cut your hair. If I cut it..." she paused as if to imagine the various outcomes of the insanity.  
  
"No one will be cutting my hair today,"  
  
"Today? Then tomorrow?"  
  
"..."  
  
"ok you're about to strangle me...or dice me with that sword...speaking of which, there was a prince in Romania who carried out fatal punishments like dicing for criminals. Were you alive or awake when that happened?"  
  
"...That prince would be my father," he studied the carpet in annoyance of the rude humans who continued to cast nervous glances his way.  
  
"You find carpets interesting?"  
  
~Smart human...trying to switch topics as usual~ "I do not 'see' necessarily the same way you can," he narrowed his eyes as they took in the vibrant colors of the carpet. And not just the colors but the light of the room itself. The pigments were more alive then he; they leapt from the fibers and danced with the rays of gold from the light bulbs. But they weren't really gold...they were a variety of colors. Whites and reds and blues and violets. He could even faintly see the rainbow spectrum that all light separated into. If Lena could see the brightened views he saw, what would she say? Would she be ecstatic about the brightened hues? The indigos and infra shades waltzing in light that wasn't light but colors as well? Would she clap her hands and dance like Ella once did when he described to her what he could experience?  
  
Because he couldn't feel anything from what he saw. He could only analyze...watch as the colors gathered at extravagant parties where they looked up at his tall figure and laughed...sneering at his misery.  
  
"Must be very fascinating," the voice reached out and pulled him out of his own thoughts. "The tailor's waiting for you,"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Mr. Alucard, have you been fitted for a suit before?"  
  
"...No,"  
  
"Don't worry, sir, it will be relatively painless,"  
  
~a happy human with a sense of humor...how lucky am I today~ he predicted that the human would try small talk soon.  
  
"Please lift your arms so they are level with your shoulders," Alucard did as he was told. "Will this be for a special occasion?"  
  
"...No,"  
  
"Is the lady your sister?"  
  
"...No,"  
  
"But it was her idea,"  
  
"...Yes,"  
  
"And do you have any thoughts about what you want the suit to look like?"  
  
"...No,"  
  
"Very well, then,"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Afterwards, the tailor showed them various styles of suits. Lena did all of the comparing while Alucard stood and continued to stare at the carpet.  
  
"Tell me what you think of this. Him with black hair. Would red go with that? You know how some have the breast pocket for a handkerchief,"  
  
"That would be fine," answered the tailor.  
  
"I'm not asking if you can do that. I'm asking if that would look good,"  
  
"It would,"  
  
Alucard slightly lifted his eyes from the carpet. Arikado had a red handkerchief...  
  
He didn't want to be in that room. Not in that store...not when Lena was slowly bringing Arikado back from he didn't know where. He slid away from the Lena and the tailor, moving with the qualities of shadow itself. Outside, mobs of humans bustled in and out of shops, returning and exchanging Christmas gifts they didn't especially appreciate. Christmas...  
  
Ella loved Christmas.  
  
//  
  
"Adrian, I am so excited!"  
  
"...Why, may I ask?"  
  
"...Why? You must be teasing. Today is Christmas Eve!"  
  
"Christmas...I see,"  
  
"Forgive me, for I must leave you. My mother specifically requested my help with cooking," she smiled regretfully and elatedly at the same time. "I am surpassing you in height,"  
  
Her human aging rate was beginning to manifest. Soon, she would realize that Alucard did not appear any different than he did when they first met. What would she say then? He shook his head and stared at the ground. The plain brown of the soil separated into a blend of colors of muds and sands and stones, all stacked on top of one another like the Painted Desert. They leapt into his face; he was lost in the amazing colors...brown as they all were. Brown...  
  
"...Adrian?"..."Adrian?" Ella held out something covered in a white cloth. "I have a present for you. Do not lay your eyes upon what it is until tomorrow morning,"  
  
"...Thank you...I do not have anything for you..."  
  
"...What do you see in the ground, Adrian?"  
  
He stared at her face, which was suddenly sullen as if Christmas was a day of suffering. "I see colors,"  
  
"Colors?"  
  
"The colors...I doubt I can explain them...I can take in one color but really see something else...so many colors...all intense and vibrant...literally jumping from the objects they stain...dancing before my eyes, pulling me into their world. And yet...I feel like a bystander...staring in at their ecstasy from behind a pane of glass,"  
  
"I do not mean to sound demanding, but I know now what you must give me for Christmas," she slid her hands into his hair and held his head so that he would look at her instead of the ground. "Paint me something," Her fingers were filled with human warmth...her skin was soft...her touch was gentle.  
  
~I want to be human...God, make me human!~  
  
"I am no artist,"  
  
"You speak as if you are one. And I care not for what talent you may or may not have. Paint me something, Adrian,"  
  
//  
  
He walked down the street, receiving stares from humans until he couldn't stand it anymore. He entered the nearest shop: a music store. Loud music was blasting, and his acute hearing only magnified the noise...noise that the humans called "industrial metal". A man's rough voice surrounded Alucard, ranting.  
  
WER ZU LEBZEIT GUT AUF ERDEN  
  
WIRD NACH DEM TOD EIN ENGEL WERDEN?  
  
DEN BLICK GEN HIMMEL FRAGST DU DANN  
  
WARUM MAN SIE NICHT SEHEN KANN?  
  
Being the son of a creature who was blessed with an extreme learning capacity and being someone who's been around for enough time to become fluent in more than a few languages, Alucard automatically began translating the German.  
  
Who in his good lifetime on Earth  
  
Becomes after death an angel?  
  
You looking at heaven ask yourself  
  
Why can't you see them?  
  
A girl's innocent and haunting voice followed.  
  
ERST VENN DIE VOLKEN SCHLAFENGEHN (Only when the clouds go to sleep)  
  
KANN MAN UNS AM HIMMEL SEHN (Can you see us in heaven)  
  
VIR HABEN ANGST UND SIND ALLEIN (We are afraid and alone)  
  
The rough voice returned with new fury  
  
GOTT WEISS ICH WILL KEIN ENGEL SEIN (God knows I don't want to be an angel)  
  
Instrumentals...a combination of techno and metal. Then, the rough voice continued to blare...  
  
SIE LEBEN HINTERM HORIZONT (They live behind the horizon)  
  
GETRENNT VON UNS UNENDLICH WEIT (Separate from us {by an} endless width)  
  
SIE MUSSEN SICH AN STERNE KRALLEN [GANZ FEST] (They must hold to the stars [completely fixed])  
  
DAMIT SIE NICHT VOM HIMMEL FALLEN (So that they don't fall from heaven)  
  
Who in his good life on earth becomes after death an angel? Who would want to become something wary of falling from heaven...Alucard wanted to become an angel. Clinging to the stars...anything was better than being who he was. How could the humans be so ungrateful? What had they to complain about? Their happiness was infinite times his happiness...but infinite times of none is more or less still none...  
  
So who wins in this world? And who wins in the next...  
  
-------------------------------------  
  
yay rammstein...^^ 


	12. Tears of blood

Disclaimer: I own myself. And maybe not even that, sadly...and i do not own the brit parliament...der...  
  
and yes, I have heard of Blind Guardian. ^^ I first heard some of their work last summer when my metalhead friend from Pennsylvania sent mp3 files to me...which my 56k modem did not take to so kindly...Theatre of Pain is one of my favorite songs XD  
  
----------------------------  
  
He wanted to sleep.  
  
Ever since the mortal invaded the castle, his days have been more miserable with every passing day. Why did he bother trying to make her leave when he could disappear into the catacombs?  
  
A simple solution to a problem that should have been simple as well.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"That's strange...Adrian's been gone for a long time..." the tailor asked when he'd be back to try the clothes. Lena honestly said she didn't know and walked out of the shop. ~He can't be leaving me...~  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"When do you think the Master's son will make that human disappear?"  
  
the demons of Castlevania were having a civil conference...as civil as they could be, anyway. It was more like the British Parliament.  
  
"YOU FOOL I TOLD ALL OF YOU SHE'S NEVER GOING TO LEAVE! THE MASTER'S SON IS TOO MUCH OF A HUMAN WORSHIPPER!" raged the succubus. A horde of witches lashed out, sending spit flying into the succubus's face as they screeched back.  
  
"SHUT UP YOU WHORE!"  
  
A group of headless soldiers sitting in the corner of the room snickered.  
  
"AND WHAT ARE YOU USELESS BLOBS LAUGHING ABOUT?!" the witches and the succubus all turned around and glared at the headless men. The witches promptly took their brooms and beat the headless masses to a bloody pulp that eventually formed back into headless demons.  
  
"Quit being such imbeciles...all of you. With all of your complaining, a conclusion can be reached that since the Master's son is too sentimental to do anything to this Lena and he'd also dismember us if we did the deed ourselves, the only one who can help us is the Master." Death twirled his scythe as he calmly proposed the resurrection.  
  
"...Death, weren't you helping out the human?"  
  
"I only help myself. The Dead are out of balance. The Catacomb Council is chiding me,"  
  
"So who are we going to use as a sacrifice?"  
  
"THE HUMAN!" demanded the ugly witches.  
  
"No no no. You fools! The only reason we are resurrecting the Master this early is because we want him to supply the human with a painful death. How could he do that for us if she is already killed for the sacrifice?"  
  
"Oh...But, Death, we don't know any other humans...we mean, we either kill them or they kill us or we kill each other..." some form of a skeleton soldier said this as if he was the Master's son confessing to the Master that he had been playing with human children again.  
  
"The best choice would be to find that human's oafish friends who ran out of this place crying only a full moon ago,"  
  
"We don't know where they are,"  
  
"Please, children. What is to worry over? You have ME," Death bowed with a flourish. "I can call upon knowledge of any human's future and appointment of death. I can see where they are, where they will be, where they were, where they'll die. It is only a matter of breaking a few rules and looking into the lives of humans who are not scheduled to die soon...of course, I am sure that the Catacomb Council will overlook this matter as long as we make Lena obsolete..."  
  
A corny maniacal laugh echoed in the chamber as the demons celebrated. When they fell silent, they heard the sound of a door slamming somewhere far away followed by echoes of "ALUCARD!!!!!".  
  
The demons looked at each other, and those who had eyes rolled them. "She's here..."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"ALUCARD!" Lena ran into the entrance hall and scanned the room frantically. Which way to go...where was he..."ADRIAN!" ~please be in your coffin room...~  
  
Too many stairs. Too many hallways. Too many doors. Too many turns. Too much Castlevania...  
  
The doors to his room were open. Everything was the same as always...except his coffin wasn't there. "Oh god...no..."  
  
~he finally got so mad at me he's returning to deathly sleep...I am all alone...~ She couldn't bear the thought of being alone. All her life, she had been surrounded by people. Maybe not people she cared about...but people nonetheless. But now, there was no one. She had to look for him...but where? Such efforts in a castle so big were nothing less of futile. She called for Death.  
  
"You have to help me look for him,"  
  
Death was silent for a few moments as if to ponder whether to agree or not. "I believe he would return to his resting place in the catacombs..."  
  
"...Thanks..." there was something...different...about his voice, but Lena didn't care for it at the moment and ran off.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Most important things are rarely remembered, but all things of no worth always are. It goes without saying that Lena remembered too clearly a history lesson from one of the many brilliant tutors she dealt with as a child. One very eccentric tutor had given a weeklong lecture about the French Catacombs complete with visual aid. Her reaction about the subject? Let us leave it at this: she was not especially fond of dead people...  
  
Being in the Castlevania Catacombs made her no fonder of dead people than she was before.  
  
If anything, it made her ill feelings worse.  
  
She was seeing real bones stacked on top of each other...not through harmless photographs. The air was drafty, earthy, and thick...exactly how an underground graveyard would be like...but worse. And the enormous size...~If I don't find him, I will die here...~  
  
Rolls of skulls protruded from the walls as if for a mantle. They seemed to have no purpose for architectural support, so as Lena began wandering into the catacombs, she reached up and tried to pry a skull from the wall to use as a marker. She was worrying so much about being lost, she didn't hesitate to reach for the skull, but as soon as her fingers touched the dusty, coarse surface of its cheekbones, her hands retreated, and a shriek that only bats could hear escaped her throat.  
  
She stood, paralyzed, staring at the skull, at its grinning mouth, at the eye-less huge gaps in its head. Several dark streaks fell from the eye-sockets and ran down to the jaws. She stared at the streaks a while longer, and realized that they were moving in an oozing kind of way out the sockets and down whatever was left of the face. Even in the dim light of the torches, she could tell what it was. Only Dracula's castle would think of something so distasteful.  
  
She looked at the skulls surrounding the one she had pried and at the ones surrounding all of those. Every skull...every ancient fleshless shell was crying tears of blood.  
  
She pushed the thoughts out of her head and reached for the skull again. She placed her foot on the wall and pushed against it while prying the skull. She heard a grating noise as the skull began to come out of the wall. The more she held on to the skull, the more sensitive her hands became to the feel of the bone and the blood from bones above it and dirt and dust. Grainy, slimy...  
  
With one final pull, the skull came out of the wall, and through its empty spot gushed torrents of blood. The liquid splashed onto her head and body and knocked her into the opposite wall. She dropped the skull, and it shattered on the ground, its pieces floating in puddles of blood.  
  
She wiped the blood from her eyes. She was covered in it. Blood dripped down her hair. Her clothes were soiled. Her arms and hands were covered thick in blood. She could taste it in her mouth, sickeningly sweet, coppery...  
  
~This was a mistake...why didn't Death tell me this would happen...it's not worth this...I want to go away...far...far...away...~ crystalline tears flooded out of her eyes and mixed with the blood on her cheeks. She couldn't force herself to stop sobbing and choking, and more blood entered her mouth. She looked back at the direction that she came from, but didn't see the entrance. She only saw another wall as if the maze of bones had reformed and trapped her in when she wasn't looking. Not as if. It had.  
  
Doomed...  
  
Her only hope was to find him...but the chances were so unlikely. The catacombs were vast and endless, it seemed...she would die here and become one of the crying skulls in the wall for all the next eternity...  
  
-----------------------------------  
  
nothing like a little blood and gore... 


	13. Everybody Snaps

disclaimer: don't own castlevania...  
  
wow this thing has been around since winter...and i might just finish it! XD  
  
totally off-topic but...is it my inability to fully understand epic poems or my scornful nature of the existence of hell or is Dante's Inferno really funny...  
  
ovid is funny, yes...aaaaaaaaaand iunno why alucard's middle name measures temp. i'm a horrible speller and name remember-er...and regretfully, yes, I have had to change some events to make them fit my random babbling, so please forgive me.  
  
----------------------  
  
The humans were bound with dark magic to the altar. As the demons laughed like children with lighters and waited for Shaft to begin the resurrection, the humans squirmed, accidentally jabbing each other but not really noticing.  
  
"So how'd they get you?" asked Alexis while getting knocked around by the furiously struggling John next to her.  
  
"What? Oh they threw bones at me." answered John. "Can those bitches throw!"  
  
"Not YOU. And quit squirming you're not getting anywhere!" she slapped him, knocking his head into the altar.  
  
"THE DAMN THING THREW CURRY AT ME! CURRRRRYYYYYY! I CURSE IT!" Donda was hysterical. Not about being captured. Not about the fact that she was to be blood sacrificed to resurrect something. But about curry. Yes. Curry.  
  
"Where the hell is Lena, then?" asked Ayden. "We paid her!"  
  
"What if she's like...dead already..." Serena's eyes widened as if the thought had just ocurred to her. "Are we all going to die?"  
  
Everyone else groaned.  
  
"WILL ONE OF YOU UGLY DEMONS TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!!!!!" demanded Axe.  
  
The demons all joined in some sort of mock-ritual dance, chanting, "Resurrect our master! Resurrect our master!" they threw their decaying arms into the air...some literally disjointed the bones and threw them...then stomped on the ground and danced around in elaborate entertwining circles. The 50-some humans stared with o.O eyes.  
  
The blood was sticky and caking her skin. She left bloody shoeprints on the ground, which she supposed could serve as markers. She didn't want to pull out more skulls and get bloodfalls again...  
  
It did not even matter much more where she was going. She only knew that she had to keep walking to keep her mind from completely thinking about the blood. If she would end up going in circles later, well...she'll worry about it then. "Adrian..." surely, with his preternatural hearing, he would be able to hear her last thoughts. Even if he would not respond, it did not matter...she was only doing it to keep from thinking about weeping dead things and pools of blood.  
  
Resting in peace.  
  
Perhaps he will wake again in a few centuries. He was already transformed into Arikado for the preparations.  
  
Numbing sleep. Yes...make the pain...the guilt...go away.  
  
"Adrian..."  
  
Through the emptiness, the voice came clear and wrenching. It wasn't a dream...she was in the catacombs...looking for him?  
  
"Damn you, Alucard!" it came again. Tired, pained, like a whisper. "Whatever happened to aristocracy, Adrian? You could have told me you were leaving!...But ha I will be the better. I will explain. You must know as well as I know what it is like to grow up with a diamond crown on your head. You are never alone. I would not consider the Lord of Darkness to be much of a father figure but your mother must have loved you. And all these demons...you must have always had them to talk to and boss around...maybe you had mortal friends. Perhaps my parents would have doted on me in ways your father would never have...but they never did.  
  
"I have an older sister. You would not know the gravity of the situation. She would argue that I was the baby and our parents spoiled me...but she lies. I was very neglected...she was always the smarter one. The well-mannered one. The prettier one. The better one...my parents made sure to give her all the attention they could spare. But I was never alone...there were always the staff to follow around...although the chef did not especially like children...  
  
"So I had the maids and the advisers and the secretaries...I was never alone. I couldn't stand to be alone. The hired help wasn't enough. That is why I have so many 'friends'...I don't even really like most of them...they're just there for the sake of being there. Even if I'm in the corner of a room and not talking to anyone, as long as there are other people in it, I'm fine. I'm a bit paranoid, no?  
  
"Why did I move here, then? To be alone. I had to prove to myself that I did not have to depend on companionship...but I am a bit pathetic as well as paranoid. Each day has been torture for me. Your creatures mean nothing. I was alone. When my friends came to live here, I realized how much I needed them...people, that is.  
  
"Of course, that made me hate myself even worse. Now you know why I refused to leave this place. Leaving meant stepping out of isolation. Leaving meant losing. Leaving meant failure.  
  
"Maybe it would have worked if I chose a better location...maybe not. Whatever...it does not matter. At least I will die alone...I will win...in some ironic way..."  
  
Shaft appeared with the ceremonial sword. The demons's demeanors became more solemn as they stopped dancing in circles.  
  
"Blood sacrifice..." Katie thought for a few seconds about all the myths she stored in her head. "Resurrection of the master...oh, god..."  
  
"What?" asked Michael. "It can't get worse than this...right?"  
  
"But from what I read, the Master's soul was sealed in the catacombs...you can't resurrect him from here!"  
  
"...Yes well we had a little problem with that...see, the Master's son, who does not know anything about this yet, has returned to sleep in the catacombs to guard the seal in case anyone goes there and tries to open it...but according to Death, the Master has been able to use the seal to combine his soul with the catacomb walls, which makes things much easier...for we have trapped someone down there for his soul to possess and using that vessel, he will come here and become completely resurrected..." explained the priest.  
  
"...So wouldn't his son notice?"  
  
"Possession is not very noticeable at all, especially if you hide behind the vessel's soul."  
  
"...ok...so we're all gonna die...AND I NEVER SAW THE ALIENS! I NEVER WENT TO STONEHENGE!" Donda was hysterical once again.  
  
"Of course, none of this will be of any use to you, so let us begin..."  
  
"Aren't you proud of me, Adrian? I learned my lesson. I see what your twisted home can do. I learned two lessons, actually..."  
  
Stop talking to me... Her voice seemed to grow louder, clinging to his mind...  
  
Think about something else.  
  
Painting...art was of course not new to him. He could recite the biographies and works of all the major artists, but he had never picked up a brush or swirled any color of paint until the day he was to paint something for her...Ella.  
  
As he sat in a tower that night, staring at the blank canvas, panic rose. She expected something brilliant from him. Beyond brilliant. It had to be spectacularly beautiful. It had to be able to throw anyone back upon first sight of it.  
  
He could think of nothing. Only the uncreative, usual thoughts of his mother, his father, and his guilt. Acting on these thoughts, he dipped the brush in the thick, red paint and flung it at the canvas without letting go. Splotches of red paint spread across the canvas, concentrated at the center, then scattering outward and slowly dripping down the sheet of white.  
  
Looking back, he does not understand why or what made him continue. It must have made sense at the time. He must have seen something. Shapes, pictures to fill with color, pictures that weren't there.  
  
Green, blue, black, purple. One after another, he threw colors onto the canvas, yet the more he added, the more empty it looked. The wet colors mixed together sometimes into more beautiful colors but mostly into dull browns.  
  
By the time he was done, his starched white shirt was spotted with paint. He stared at the colors intertwining and separating for hours, perhaps, and could still figure out nothing. He could not understand his own creation...this thing that had stemmed from his thoughts, memories, nightmares. This thing that was not there. Shapeless, meaningless...  
  
She would hate it...but he had no time to make another one. When the painting had dried, he took it to the river to wait for her.  
  
He was furious. His "painting" was horrible. It looked like nothing...or something that was ruined before it dried. Would she cry? He hated it when humans cried. Their tears were innocent...crystalline and clear. Without any remnant of blood. Not like his or his father's. He could not even cry without sin.  
  
He did not see her coming. He was so disappointed in himself that he even did not hear her thoughts when she arrived.  
  
He took one look at her and sensed wave after wave of hurt, anger, fear. She stared at him warily, her mouth saying nothing but her mind saying all.  
  
Why didn't you tell me? How could you deceive me like this? You were my best friend...  
  
He stared at the ground, his vision slightly distorted by the films of red tears over his eyes. I did not mean to...it was you. You made me your friend... blaming others was not polite.  
  
"Have you opened it yet?"  
  
No he could see her in his mind, her eyes widening when she heard the message he had sent straight to her own thoughts.  
  
"It was a necklace. A very pretty one...my mother noticed it was missing because it is part of what she calls my 'dowry', which I suppose is very important. She was very angry with me. She demanded to know what I had done with it. Of course, she knew it was me. I am always looking through the room at all the pretty things." her voice choked up. Crystalline tears shimmered, spilling over her cheeks. How pathetic she looked...how hurt, how breakable... "I told her I gave it to my friend for Christmas. She was so angry...she demanded to know who. I hate it when she is angry with me. I had to tell. I said your name."  
  
Don't tell me anymore I don't want to know...  
  
"You probably know already. You've probably had this happen plenty of times...who knows how old you are. Now I understand why you never seem to age. You look like you could be my little brother...but that, you could never be."  
  
I could never hurt you...that would not be fair...  
  
"You are evil." she pronounced the last word with venom that he had never known her to go anywhere near to. In front of the human, he began to wail and weep, streaks of dark red flowing out of his eyes, down his white cheeks, falling and splattering onto his white shirt.  
  
"QUIT SNIFFLING, TRYING TO TRICK ME! I HATE YOU!"  
  
She never saw that awful painting.  
  
He saw her only once after that. In her twenty-fourth year of life, when she was wife to some rich lord far away. She was there to visit her sick and dying mother. The mother who had told her the truth...  
  
It had been some fifteen years at least, yet her face still carried an unease at being back in the setting of her childhood nightmare. Did she look for him? It would not have been hard to recognize him. He was still nothing more than a little boy in appearance, frozen in the despairing image of the last day...  
  
It was sometime before the evening. He remembered that the sun was setting. He followed her for a while when she wandered through the main market in the town, heading for her mother's house. But when she got to the end of the market, one road away from the road where the house was, she took a turn onto the neglected road that led to the river.  
  
He stood on a branch of one of the many trees by the river, hidden by their bright green leaves. Beneath the branches, Ella stood close enough to the water that small ripples were absorbed into the hem of her dress.  
  
"Do you still hang around here?" she asked nothing in particular. She didn't think that he was really there. "I'm Ella, probably not the most recent one you have befriended...I gave you a necklace, remember? And you were supposed to give me a painting...I do not want it even now. And I do not want my necklace back. I wonder if you still look the same. How does your growing rate work, I wonder?"  
  
Her voice was soft, filled with fear and slightly hinted with hatred. The same as that last day...but from a woman...and without the hurt of betrayal.  
  
"Ironic...that I have never had another friend as good or as close to me as you were...Adrian." when she said his name her voice was a tired whisper...as if she was drifting off into pleasant dreams. "You must have known that someone would tell me, eventually. Why did you not tell me off? Kill me? Send The Impaler or his minions after me?" she stepped into the middle of the stream, the water up to her knees. "You could have let me die by myself that first day. Do you remember it? I was a silly child, and the water was high...and you bade me not to walk in. I remember the day. I remember everything. You torture me, Adrian. I scream your name in my sleep!"  
  
You are mad...you are mad. he could not stand to hear anymore. He took one last look at her...she seemed so healthy...and her face was serene. Alas, it had to be like this...  
  
Good evening, Lena...  
  
It was a deep, powerful, ancient voice...and it was coming from the bones...  
  
"The stakes are ready?"  
  
"They are, Shaft."  
  
"Who are you? What do you want from me?"  
  
Who is she talking to?  
  
The coffin lid opens.  
  
I believe you have heard of me, darling...Prince of Darkness? Ruler of this castle? Your dear Adrian's father? Dracula?  
  
"You're..."  
  
"Yes, Lena."  
  
"Impalement? Heh...no curry, right, Donda?"  
  
"That is not funny."  
  
"This is all Lena's fault."  
  
"LENA!!!!!"  
  
The deviant chorus of screaming is no longer missed.  
  
------------------------------  
  
The last part reminds me of a manga called Demon Diary. In one of the volumes, when it's getting to the climax, every frame is like a close-up on a character, and each frame is numbered, so it's all a countdown tied together to the climax. Like how in this chapter, everything ends in someone saying something about Lena and then there's the screaming in each frame...screams of pain from the impaled, scream of being possessed from Lena...and obviously, Alucard is screaming...yay for screaming. and GO PSYCHO PANDAS!  
  
VAN HELSING WAS A HILARIOUS MOVIE XD but it was a total rip-off of cv and vampire hunter D...peh they tried... 


	14. The Greatest Pain

disclaimer: I don't own cv or the mongooses...but everyone should go and see my pretty banner on my journal   
  
malice mizer kicks all other j-rock ass...and mana is sexy! but i ish too poor to buy an imported cd...sigh anyone know them and can send me songs? T.T  
  
and there's a slight snow white reference...hahaha  
  
wow I missed my story's anniversary...o.O it's been more than a year, and I'm still not done. Damn, I must be the laziest authoress on the face of Mars XD and my stuff ain't good enough to hold out for anyway...  
  
so I'm really pissed off because in the last chapter, for some reason erased all the squiggly thingies that look like this: (if it didn't show up, bah!) and using the squiggly things is the only way that I separate the different sections and show the diff between normal narration and a character's thinking...now I have to find something else and I'm not even sure that it won't be erased like the squiggly things. what are those called? tilda?  
  
maybe I'll use an asterisk...or slashy thingies hmm...I'll be testing some new symbols throughout this.  
  
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A song that almost sounded like a Latin hymn filled the room, not that it mattered that nothing was singing. The eerily beautiful chorus echoed and blocked out most other noises. It was all the humans could hear...until a swarm of demons lifted a human, threw him into the air, and solemnly watched as the helpless mortal fell back down stomach first into one of the stakes. The other humans watching winced and attempted to stuff their heads into whatever corners available as if they would hear the stake piercing the skin. But that, of course, was impossible. All that anyone could hear was the holy singing.  
  
Blood spurted from his mouth; a scarlet waterfall. Suddenly, his body flopped as he dropped further into the stake, and the bloody tip of the stake ripped through him entirely and stuck out of his lower back, bringing with it displaced intestines and spine.  
  
This time, they heard it.  
  
"They really meant it...they're killing us all..." the remaining humans looked at each other, defeated and saying their silent goodbyes. Since they were ambushed to be brought back to Castlevania, Axe could not bring an axe and Kai could bring no medieval torture device. The weredragon...well, the weredragon realized that they didn't quite have the ability to change into dragonform...  
  
Within one or two minutes, the area around the altar was crowded with staked corpses, reeking with the coppery smell of blood and the immortal smell of death. Ponds of blood formed on the floor and on the altar from a sinful storm of grotesque sacrifice.  
  
The demons managed to keep marvelously quiet.  
  
The singing did not cease, but it was softer now. One demon (and I will leave the identity to your own judgment) was reminded of a time when s/he left Castlevania just to see the world outside and maybe cause a little havoc too. S/he came to a house wherein lived a woman and her two kids. The kids were watching moving pictures on a box of some sort (which later turned out to be something called a "television"). The moving pictures seemed to show a story of some sort. There was a lady with short, black hair wearing a blue dress and a yellow half-cape. She was lying in a coffin with a glass top and fairies carved into the sides. Seven dwarfs stood around the coffin, crying. The music was similar to the softer ritual music.  
  
This particular demon quickly returned to thinking about the Master. Sure, s/he found the lady in a glass-coffin story rather touching, but the Master would surely bludgeon the delinquent demon with bamboo rods for amusement if its thoughts revealed the adventure to the little house in the very big, flat field of grass.  
  
The demons all immediately heard footsteps coming towards the room. They looked to the entrances with a degree of anticipation similar to a child nearing a piece of candy...or...Lena nearing a good interior designer.  
  
They had never liked Lena until the moment that she walked into the room, caked in blood and dirt and rather stupefied-looking. A human could be no lovelier, they thought as they bowed to the Master.  
  
Lena walked to the altar then stood stiffer than any professional zombie or other dead thing.  
  
Shaft held to her the ceremonial sword. Lena held the sword in front of her with both hands, pointing the tip of the sword towards herself. The blade instantly evaporated into something of ectoplasmic quality or a whispering illusion.  
  
All at once, the demons began to screech excitedly...worriedly. The Master's son had come.  
  
Lena's hands started shaking, and her eyes switched between clearing up and glazing over. She recognized him even though Alucard now had shorter, black hair and more modern clothes.  
  
To stall for time, the demons formed a thick circle around her. Lena's hands were shaking more and more, and all thought that the plan would fail...The demons screamed for the Master to regain control over the stupid human. They've worked so hard for this, and they couldn't hold off Alucard much longer. Do it. Just do it!  
  
She did it. The non-solid sword went through her without making a mark. She fell into the blood-flooded floor, her body beginning to be covered in a black light that spread like shadows from her and consumed the blood.  
  
The demons turned away from Alucard to marvel at their success. There was no stopping the resurrection. The Master has returned...  
  
He was magnificent. Tall, immaculate, powerful, overwhelming, evil evil evil. The black light still surrounded him and spread through the room until nothing could be seen. When it faded, Alucard pushed through the stunned demons to the center of the circle. The stakes were gone, as were the bodies attached to them. The floor was sparkling innocently clean. His father was gone. Lena was gone.  
  
-------------------------  
  
"Wake up, mortal..." a voice from somewhere far away. A cruel, cold voice. Demanding..."Wake up, mortal..." it said again. Lena reluctantly opened her eyes. She was in a large room...it must have been a bedroom at one time, but now there was a coffin. A beautiful room with a beautiful coffin filled with dust and gone to waste...a room she had never seen before.  
  
There was someone standing in front of her. He had shoulder-length flowing white hair and a long, sharp face with skin the same pearl white as Alucard's skin. He wore clothes similar to those that Alucard used to wear but in colors primarily red and black.  
  
It began to come back to her. The voice from catacombs...and...did she see Alucard with black hair? She checked her hands; they were still dripping with blood...and her arms were sore as if they had been lifting something heavy...  
  
"It was you! You...you are the voice. You're his father."  
  
"Yes, allow me to properly introduce myself..." he kept talking, but she couldn't bring herself to listen. His voice was cutting into her...she finally began to pay attention after she thought of something to say.  
  
"...Why are you here?" stupid, but something to say.  
  
"Ah, you see, my servants have a bit of a grudge against you..."  
  
"They want you to kill me." her eyes lowered to the floor that she was sitting on. She heard him laugh. It was a beautiful laugh, but it made her want to cry.  
  
"Don't be a fool. If they wanted to merely be rid of you, they would have finished you off already."  
  
(symbol testing thing)Don't be a fool? What is not a fool? It was best not to reply even though hundreds of possible responses flowed in her head, and surely, he could see them if he wanted.  
  
"They want you to ultimately die, of course...but torture comes first. They want to cause you the greatest pains possible."  
  
She put her head even lower to the ground while her hands rubbed frantically at the bloodstained plush carpet. Her hair fell in front of her face. The dark locks mixed frighteningly well with the dark blood. She closed her eyes, but she could see it all in her mind. What imagery came with disgust...  
  
"Pain is something undefined."  
  
"Like love," she interrupted. Stupid, stupid. Lena winced, waiting for him to hit her at the very least.  
  
"Love?! Love. You humans. You with your emotions. You with your love. Your fake love. You think that claiming to love and be loved will give you some magical salvation. What a term, it is. Love. What is love? Is love God? Where was love when my wife jumped from a tower, and those bastard priests said that she was in Hell for it?! Is that love?! I devoted my life to the so-called love and-"  
  
"I DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD!" at least this time, she was agreeing with him, but what did it matter? His voice was shattering her regardless of the content of words.  
  
"Really? Adrian hasn't pressed his beliefs on you? How odd. But do not interrupt me again. Where was I...love? Yes. Love. I will tell you what love is. Love is another excuse for mortals to discriminate and take their ignorance and arrogance to the fullest. They choose to love one thing and not love-or hate-another in the name of love and the purity of love. Love is hate!"  
  
Just shut up and get on with it She couldn't bring herself to look up. His face, however preternaturally beautiful, would terrify her. The calculating evil in his voice was enough. Enough...  
  
"Well, now. You are rude as well...Love is defined, Lena. The definition is merely rejected. Pain is NOT like love. Different people have different ideas of the greatest pain, and the beautiful part is...they are all correct. Therefore, when my servants ask of me to bestow upon them this favor...to make you feel the greatest pain, I am responsible for deciding which greatest pain to choose. Whose point of view...The obvious thing to do is to just choose whichever view is the most painful, but that would be a judgment upon my part. No problem, however...is not my judgment better than all others?"  
  
For a brilliant vampire who's been around for a while, you sure are pompous  
  
"I will ignore that because you will soon pay. You will go through the greatest pain. It will last you an eternity. Yet, you will still die."  
  
There was a long pause. He must have been waiting for a response..."It lasts forever, but I still die. I thought you don't believe in an afterworld..."  
  
"I can arrange such things. Many can...you DID once say that you wished you could live forever?"  
  
Lena thought about it quite studiously. Yes, at one point, when life in the castle was calm and...happy...  
  
She couldn't remember what month it was exactly. Living there, time was no object...the only day to go by was Sunday because on Sundays, Alucard hung around in the Chapel and sometimes, the mausoleum...  
  
The weather was mild. The sky was actually blue...bright blue, and the grass was greener than anything in an animation. It was a Sunday, yes. She was outside, wandering. The only sound she heard was a squishing as her shoes stamped on the grass and the occasional churchbells from some town far away. After toughing it out through overgrown weeds and vines, she found the mausoleum. It was beautiful, though unkempt like everything else about Castlevania that she hadn't bothered to fix. She didn't especially pay any attention to it and moved on. Back into the castle...she heard typical singing in the chapel. Odd that nobody ever sang, but there was always singing...  
  
She opened one of the doors to the chapel and saw Alucard staring up at the gigantic cross. The biggest stained glass showed the typical picture of a saint with the sun disk halo. Everything about Christianity was rather pagan, if she bothered to think or look...  
  
Gandhi once said that all religions are true...or something like that. Buddhists are allowed to celebrate aspects of other religion's holidays. It was something about harmony...a union. Some universal understanding that it was all the same...belief in something good. This feeling suddenly came to her in the chapel. The feeling of goodness, though so badly worded...religion was not something she bothered with, but there she was in a chapel, and at the moment, she felt that it was one of the most beautiful things in the world. She felt peaceful. Calm. Safe. That was when. That was when she whispered to herself...  
  
"I wish this would last forever. I never want to leave this place...ever. Even with the demons. Even with the chaotic death in everything...I want it all..."  
  
"So what if I wanted to live forever? That's hardly punishment."  
  
He laughed again. "Your ignorance precedes you...you will see, for I am granting your wish. So romantic, is it not? I am a magical being giving you what you want. Immortality. Why? Because it is the greatest pain. And you die in the process."  
  
------------------------  
  
I am the master of solutions! BWAHA! -.-; 


	15. When He Finds Her

Disclaimer: I do not own cv...anyone who does not know this by now is a true pineapple (which is BAD)

wings, Hellsing transcends awesomeness, but the Arikado I'm using is from the CV Aria of Sorrow game nod

grr none of the symbols in ch. 13 showed up except for - so months ago, I came up with a complicated system using only the - (hyphen). But then I thought "hey I have WordPad!" and tada! I can use _ITALICS_ now!

_- - -  
Live forever and die in the process... _it only had to be repeated twice or three times before she decided to assume its meaning. Not all assumptions are stupid or far-fetched...unfortunately.

"They won't be happy. It isn't what they wanted." finally, she looked up at him. She had expected a certain expression, a certain feeling, but it was not there. She thought he would be amused with his idea, but his expression was nothing but coldness and business. Did he find this idea actually logical? He seemed to find it trivial. No big deal. All in a night's work.

"It is exactly as they requested."

"And what if I happen to like this punishment? What if I like immortality? What if I like being a vampire?"

"That is impossible." Ah, the twist of things. For lifetimes, humans looked for ways to prolong life and become immortal. Now, when given the chance, one was begging for the opposite.

"But what if I kill myself?"

"Would you?"

_ No...Damn, he is good at this game._ "It can't...this is all crazy. I can't die! er...un-die...whatever. This isn't my fault! I didn't do anything! You can't-...HE WON'T LET YOU!" she clumsily stood up and threw the first thing she found on a nearby endtable. She saw that it was made of glass but couldn't tell what it was...especially after he caught it and crushed it in his hand.

"Now, why do they always do that?" he commented mockingly and extended to her the hand he had used to destroy the glass item. His hand had no lines, no fingerprints. It was like the hand of a marble statue except for small bits of glass embedded into the palm. The flesh was pushing the glass out of itself and closing up until wounds were only in memory. He carelessly shook off the dislodged pieces of glass. "Now, what was that you said?"

"He won't let you. He won't." Lena shook her head. Her eyes couldn't possibly get any bigger. She backed away and tripped over a chair, falling to the floor again. It didn't do much; Dracula was closing what distance there was between them.

"Who? Alucard? Or as I see now, Arikado...I still do not understand how you could recognize him during the ritual, but that is of no importance. What can he do? Do you think he even cares about you?"

"He may not, but he would care about what a monster like you does!"

"He loves me."

"Is that a joke?...ok, so, no. Look, you don't have to do this. Shouldn't you be on something bigger and more...I don't know, Vladi-like? Such as covering the world in darkness? Making a vampiric army? Something...like that? I can just leave. I haven't done you significant damage. I can leave like I was supposed to!"

"That is not what they requested."

"You don't have to listen to them! You're their master! You're..." _Why are you so against the idea? Did you not ask for it?_ He was putting thoughts in her head...that had to be what it was. But she believed it..."Just...a bite. It's just one bite. And I'll have what I want, right? We'll all have...what we want..."

"That is correct..."

"WHERE THE HELL DID HE TAKE HER?!"

"We don't know! It wasn't supposed to work like that; you ruined it! He was going to stay here and kill her!" It is observable that magical skeletons just really aren't that smart since this one's bones were now scattered over the floor.

"Well, you knew this was going to happen eventually. You didn't like her anyway," added Death.

"...What EXACTLY did you ask of him?"

"We wanted her to die, but we couldn't think of a painful enough method."

"Yes, we wanted her to suffer an eternity's worth and then die."

_ He's going to twist this into something no one wanted..._

And thus, he set out to find them. bwaha...

He brushed hair away from her face. His skin was like velvet, but it was so cold...not a normal coldness. Not exactly like ice...not like snow...it was something altogether different and disturbing.

His skin was velvet, and his lips were silk.

She saw herself walking in a dense forest. No light came through the canopy...the whole forest was covered in a black cloud. Somewhere ahead, there was a large structure. The architecture was rather baroque, and it would have looked beautiful if the walls weren't a dull gray and crumbling. There was a dome on top of the building. It looked like it was made of crystal or something else clear. In front of the doors were dozens of statues, all of which were in pieces.

Lena nearly tripped over the eyeless head of some statue or other as she picked her way through to the doors. The doors were made of the same stone as everything else. She stood in front of them, wondering what to do since there was no way she could open them. But the doors groaned and opened, making a tremendous grinding noise. It wasn't exactly the best invitation, but she took it and went inside. The room was large, dusty, and completely empty except for a statue in the middle of the room. It looked as if it came right out of the stained glass in a church. The statue was a female saint, and unlike the other statues, it towered over Lena and was completely preserved. It looked like any regular saint, but then Lena noticed that the woman's praying hands were pointed towards the floor, her glance also pointed down as if she was praying to Hell. The saint's expression was peculiar as well. She appeared to be smiling, but it was a malevolent-looking smile. She was disturbingly beautiful.

Lena walked around the statue and looked up into the giant dome. She had a clear view of the sky above. There was a black cloud...it was ominous looking just like the statue was.

There were another set of doors at the other end of the room. Unlike the entrance doors, they looked to be made of some type of wood. Lena glanced at the statue one more time, expecting it to suddenly come to life, but it did not, so she went through the wooden doors. The room she entered was not quite as big as the first. It was empty as well except for a rectangular stone block in the middle of the room. Lying on the platform was a girl. Not a statue. A real girl...sleeping. Lena walked over to the stone block; there was something strange about that girl. She lied as if she had been arranged by a funeral director with her hands folded and placed just below her chest. Her skin was immaculate and pearl white.

She wasn't sleeping. She was dead.

She wasn't just any girl. Lena was staring at herself.

"...You're not dead. You can't be dead. You're me. I'm not dead. Wake up. Wake up!" Lena nudged her dead self. The dead Lena's skin felt like velvet...where had she felt velvet skin before? Velvet, icy skin...

The dead girl opened her eyes.

"Oh my god..."

The dead girl sat up and smiled at Lena.

"...Who are you? Why do you look like me...where am I? What's with the demonic saint in the other room?"

"I am all the truth that you cannot run from anymore." the dead girl's voice was Lena's...but improved. It had some resounding quality...lined with poisonous dark chocolate. This added quality was familiar as well...

The dead girl took one of Lena's hands. Her skin was so velvety, but her hold was unusually firm. The dead girl raised her other arm to her lips and Lena saw the flash of fangs. The dead girl bit her own wrist and held it towards Lena.

"...What am I supposed to do with-" the two small pricks closed up, and the skin was perfect again.

"Oh, that is so annoying sometimes...do you want to help me?"

"I guess...I mean...you're me..."

"I need you to drink from me."

"Why?"

"Come, now. You said you would help me...help yourself, essentially...yes?"

"I...I guess...no...you have to tell me what this is-" the dead girl pulled Lena towards her and pressed her newly bitten wrist against Lena's lips. "STO-" blood flowed into her mouth. For the first time ever, she thought that it tasted...rather sweet. Maybe not exactly sweet...but pleasant. She couldn't describe it to herself. It just tasted pleasant...and she wanted more of it.

She could hear the dead girl laughing...but she couldn't see the dead girl. She couldn't see much of everything...everything was fading away...

"...Another one has passed."

Everyone stared at Death in response, even Arikado!

Death outlined a circle in the air with the tip of his sycthe. The circle showed a room in a mausoleum. There was a girl lying on a platform with hands folded beneath her chest. A corpse. Then another person entered the circle. She was walking towards the dead girl. The circle magnified the image of the live girl standing next to the dead girl. They looked oddly similar. They both looked like Lena.

"The master killed her already." was said disappointedly.

"No."

"Then why would you be seeing this?"

"The dead Lena is not Lena. The dead Lena is the Master."

"But they're-"

"They are."

- - -  
This forgetting and remembering process was becoming rather annoying...but she was getting better at it.

She could see Dracula. She was holding his arm. She was drinking from him. In her thoughts, she demanded herself to let go, but she couldn't. She would shrivel up and die without more blood; she was sure of it.

"That's enough." he pulled his arm away from her, still looking like he didn't think much of it. "Go look at yourself."

Lena walked over to a full-length mirror and stared into it. She could see his reflection behind hers...so vampires did have reflections after all.

She saw the dead girl but there was still blood in her hair...shiny, perfect hair. She was covered in blood, but it didn't make her look dirty. It wasn't just the image that was different. She was seeing different as well...she was seeing so many different hues and colors that were bizarrely individual yet harmoniously blended into the whole picture. And she could see detail easier than if she had used a magnifying glass. "...What have I done..." And that voice. Her voice. The dead girl's voice...

She felt something push through her throat. It felt grainy...like sand. She tried to swallow, but that only made it worse. She choked and coughed...and red sand poured out of her mouth. _Was he lying? Does this mean I will die?_

"That is only what happens to your organs."

The sand collected in front of her, its red hue turning to brown then black. She couldn't think of how to react to it. It was her...some form of her...

"I believe my son will be joining us shortly..."

"Oh...wait. Aren't you worried? Aren't-...oh god...he'll see me."

"Worried? If you are implying that he will barge in here, decapitate me, and take my head to a bonfire, you are grievously mistaken."

"He's more formal about it, then?"

"Eventually, you will have to begin using your new intelligence..." he stared skeptically at her. "If he-I will use 'kills' for lack of a more correct word-me, you will die as well."

"...This might as well be the most important point in my pathetic human life, and you stand there with your arms folded so very carelessly. Do you create others often? I would expect you to be protective of your blood, considering your major ego and monumental reputation. I would imagine you searching the far reaches of this world for a human...the perfect human in your eyes to embrace. I'm sure you never considered much of-"

"I liked you better when you were scared mute."

"And I absolutely LOVED you when you were trapped in that catacomb." _I can't stay here. He'll find me. He'll eventually find me, but that will be later if I leave..._She waited for a depressing response from Dracula, but he didn't seem to have heard her thoughts. _You. Are. A. Dipshit._ Again, nothing. _God is real._ Silence._I WANT you!_ This was beginning to be fun. _I-_

"Death has spread the word. My other servants are all rampaging here with some assumption...they will learn to be patient."

"Master!" Death came not knocking at the door. "Th-" Arikado pushed him out of the way.

"You-" He saw her sitting on the floor like crumpled paper with a pile of black sand next to her. "This is your brilliant solution?"

"I thought you would appreciate or at least understand my genius. She is now something that you hate more than...everything. The irony is brilliant, no?" Dracula laughed. "You will have time to think this over. She needs to hunt now."

"You will NOT teach her-"

"Very well. You take her." Dracula shrugged and smiled connivingly.

- - -  
yeah...this chapter underwent lots of revisions...heh...rather awkward.


	16. RegenesisThe New Beginning

disclaimer: I do not own the idea or the content and creative genius of the Castlevania games

A/N: I thank all who have read and reviewed one of my other fics, "Welcome to the Castlevania Bed and Breakfast" I think it was called. It's been a while. I would be writing this note on a new chapter of that story, but unfortuistously, it has been deleted by administration. I have decided not to rewrite and continue that story, and if anyone who reads this also read that fic, I give you my apologies.

I also thank all who took the time to read and review this story, which is the most extensive out of all the pieces I've ever written. It makes me very happy also because I have never been able to finish an outside-of-school piece, and this is the closest I have come. I plan to finish it. Thank you, and sorry for the delays. I return...

As for the matter of the lack of a transitional period for Lena...it really depends on which theory you follow. I am very much influenced by Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, and mixed with the many other theories I have read about, I compiled a list of my own beliefs about the makings of a vampire. I hope you can bear with me, and I hope this answers the question.

**(Regenesis-The New Beginning)**

They stood on the one road leading off the mountains, out of the forest, into town.

"I can see distinct..." Unable to finish her thought, she said instead, "It's like having magnifying glasses for eyes..." Her voice was drenched with vampiric resonance. She smiled, but her eyes reflected troubled thoughts.

Arikado wondered how to introduce her to feeding. The first would be easy...the hunt itself. Skin transformation was a continuous process, and Lena could easily pass for just a human with very fine skin.

He mostly worried about how she would react. He, himself hated hunting...but he was only a dhampire. Once she learned, she would be more of a vampire than he was. Not a proposition he looked forward to...

"Come..." he ran. In only a second, he was maybe half a mile away. Lena blinked in a confused manner. She was still seeing with a human mindset. "Use your eyes and follow me," he ordered, and continued down the road.

"Did you see that? I'm not even tired...and I didn't trip over myself..." A little shocked, but pleased as well.

It shouldn't have happened so fast...the acceptance.

What if it wasn't even acceptance? Maybe it was the blood taking over...maybe it was too much.

_He should have had at least some discretion about his own blood..._

Perhaps she was even just faking it, but he could not tell. Not anymore. They were bound by blood, blood which blocked her mind from his. But she was now a full-blooded daughter of Dracula. If she wished, she could break down his mind.

They were in a scattered neighborhood between the road and the town. "What are you thinking about?"

Good. She hadn't taught herself to listen...

He couldn't possibly explain. Different humans tasted differently. The young, the beautiful, and the innocent tasted sweet. Criminals had blood spiced with fire. He could begin there...but there were so many possibilities. And the first victim would be remembered forever and could determine her tastes for the rest of her...life.

She would need several humans tonight. They could be of different types...but that still wouldn't solve the problem of which type would be first.

It couldn't be his decision. There was only this way...

He started walking again. There would be no thinking stops after this. "There are many types of people...you will see all of them and come to know all their thoughts and concerns. With that ability, you will choose for yourself...who your victims will be."

"Why can't you tell me which kind is...best?"

"It is not for me to say."

"But how will I..."

"You will know."

Yes, she will know. And she will act on it. He will see the ugliness that he helped cause...

Even before she was in the neighborhood, she had heard thumpings like the tired beatings of drums all conglomerated into humming. As she entered the town, the noise became overwhelming. She realized that she was hearing the heartbeats of all the people who lived there...all the people who diligently went about day and night living. She also heard voices...the thoughts of those around her. She could only hear a few, but that would probably change with time. A child passed, and the voice rang with the wish to visit a playground. A woman passed, and her voice spoke bitterly about another woman in front of her even though both were equally skinny. Lena heard many voices inquiring to themselves about Arikado. What was his real haircolor? Which dye brand did he use? Why oh why is his skin so fine...not fair. A guy should not have skin like that. Lena heard this from young girls caked with make-up and she laughed to herself. All the while, she heard their hearts thumping...she heard the blood in their bodies and she realized that she was "hungry" if such was the word. Yet she still could not tell who to take. She glanced at Arikado, but he only stared blankly at all the people.

They wandered around the town. They passed by churches and schools and all types of places. She was busy listening to and seeing everything...she didn't know how much time had passed. After a while, she decided to ask him why she hadn't found the right one...but he wasn't there. She couldn't see him anywhere around her. She panicked. She had been abandoned for who knows how long...she didn't know what to do. She hadn't found anyone...and she was so hungry. The humans were beginning to go home for the night.

Then her eyes settled on a man with shoulder-length black hair who looked a bit like Arikado. He was outfitted in black and decorated with metal spikes. He stood outside a movie theatre; his thoughts revealed that he was waiting for his friends. He had a cigarette, and Lena felt like the smoke was trapping her in a cacoon.

The thumping of his heart was becoming louder than the background noise she had been hearing. It was distinct and a song in itself. Ah, what a heart. The pounding sounds were so strong; would it ever stop?

Getting so loud...like an approaching train.

She was so lost. She was so confused. She was so angry that he had left her...

Something had instilled itself in her...the want to challenge herself to make the human's heart silent.

_Haha yes...do it._

She found herself standing in front of him. She smiled. "...Hi..."

It wasn't exactly hard after the first time...wasn't hard to decide who, that is. The other parts were...well......

She had four that first night. She didn't know what to do with the bodies, so she left them in inconspicious but easy-to-find places. Blood made her calmer. Being abandoned was a numb thought in the back of her mind...back of her mind. Mind. She wondered if she still had some form of a brain...otherwise, how could she be thinking?

She had many questions. For instance, with warm blood running through her, her skin turned a human-like pink. She wondered if blood would always do that for her.

And another question. She could sense the coming sunlight. How interesting was that? What would happen if she stayed out when the sun came? How long would it take for her to die and how would that take place?

Ah better not find out.

She ran to the edge of town back to the path she took from the castle. She saw what looked like Arikado waiting there and felt a strange, sharp pain beyond any human sensation she ever experienced. She was reminded of being abandoned, of feeling like a lost child in a strange place.

His hands were in his pockets. He looked down at her with a sad look.

"You have the nerve to mope?" she asked.

"I'll have to teach you...how to dispose of a body."

"THAT'S why you look like you're going to cry?!"

"Did you enjoy yourself?"

"Um..."

"You try not to think about it, am I correct? You know what a monster you are now. Killing was the height of your ecstasy and you can hardly contain yourself, right?"

"Why are you giving me this lecture now...?"

"Do you wonder why I'm so distracted and despondent?"

"No. Get away from me. What have you done for me? You let this happen. And then you abandon me...and then you have the nerve to tell me how horrible I am." she pushed him out of her way. How easy it was now!

"You are HIS."

So soon, the faces of her victims were swirling in her head. Their thoughts, goals, and memories haunted her thoughts. She killed their ambitions for what? Her?

"I don't...need this...right now..." her sight was murky with tears. She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.

"You can't even cry now."

"I can!" she stuck her hand out towards him and saw that her hands were crimson with blood.

"You can't. Our tears don't matter. They only condemn us."

"No..."

"Yes. You're not a human...in any way. You only hurt them. They fear you and there is no way you could be with them. You can never be friends with them. You can never know them...unless you plan to kill them...you see...you are a thing now."

_You mean I can only be isolated? I can only be hated?_

The strange pain hit her again. Her vision was red...

She was so angry...so hurt already. Ah the irony! He was calling HER a thing now!

_Oh just shut up...shut up..._

"SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!" Her hand raised and then came down slapping him across the face.

Arikado merely sighed. He was expecting this sooner or later...

"Come now, the sun is almost here. Come...home."

(**End of Chapter)**

Well, yes...again very sorry it took me so long heh...it'd be so awkward to think of Castlevania as home sweet home XD

So I have romanian techno...yeah...it's some crazy stuff!


	17. Raspberry Jam

disclaimer: i don't own castlevania. rabid.

a/n: where has the funny gone? good question...into hibernation until called upon. that is the answer. why? because in the last chapter, it was essential to set the mood. hence, no funniness. i do not set this up like a manga XD

**(Raspberry Jam)**

A young man stared listlessly into his dimly lit refrigerator, the upper half of his body nearly fallen into the cold cavity. Before the humming of the appliance lulled him to sleep, he took some food and looked in the drawers for a spreading knife. He sat at the kitchen table, autonomously spreading raspberry jam over a slice of bread. The bright raspberry color hurt his eyes even though they were less than half-open. Times like these made him regret working in the company corporation. Not adhering to sporadic changes in work hours led to family grudges, which were worse than anything a regular boss could do to him.

His father hadn't even explained why. He called the previous night at 11. "Lolida, you're going to have to come in a _little_ earlier tomorrow." Lolida. His parents only called him by his full first name when something was very grievous...

He showered and felt a little more awake.

The skyscraper where the company's headquarter was located would probably impose him if it wasn't for the fact that he had worked there since the end of his education. He was used to the bright, piercing lights and the filtered air. No matter which room he went, the place always seemed sterile. A typical large medicinal company...it made him wonder how the family business used to be run. As far as he knew, even way back centuries ago, his family had made "medicine"-superstitious potions, mostly. How would the shop of his great-great-great-great-grandmother compare to the bleak, bleached office of his father? He imagined a small brick building with tapestries on the walls and a cross above shelves of colorful bottles. His family had been strictly Catholic as long as he could remember...

"Hello, Li." his father's secretary smiled warmly at him. She was pretty, but the nicer she was, the more annoyed he seemed to become. "Why are you here so early? Your father did not tell me you had an appointment."

"Well, I don't know. He only told me late last night to come."

"Uh...let me check to see if I got this wrong..." she turned to her computer and opened the scheduler. As it loaded, she asked, "So how are you?"

"Tired. You?"

"Oh, the same."

"...You always seem to have so much energy..."

"Yes, well..." she looked up with a slanting glance and smirked. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Sure..." he couldn't care any less. She opened a drawer and took out a small box.

"Caffeine pills save my life every day." she giggled gleefully. Lolida raised one eyebrow. "Ah, here we are." she turned back to the computer. "I remembered correctly. There is no record...but he has nothing appointed right now." She pressed the intercom button on her phone. "Mr. Belmont, your son is here to see you."

"Send him in."

"See you later, Li."

Lolida nodded and opened the door to his father's office.

She felt exhausted once she reached the castle. No...not necessarily exhausted...like something was pushing down on her eyelids, like her body was turning numb or disappearing...like she was fading into a melting pot of darkness. "Adrian, am I dying?" her vision became fuzzy, blurry. She thought she was stumbling, that her legs would give beneath her.

"Only for a little while."

Her eyes shut. Her limbs were wasted. She fell...into nothingness.

Arikado caught her when she fell. Her body was limp as a corpse. He carried her into a bedroom and set her down on the bed. Her hands, in dream-like motion, folded neatly on her chest. The act was peculiar, instinctive. He sat next to her for a while, staring at her expressionless face and stony limbs. He never really observed vampires in the Sleep. He didn't know if they dreamed. He certainly dreamed. He only knew enough to not be too near to them, for they were equipped with strange reflexes that made them unknowingly lash out at anything that came near to disturb their rest.

Eventually, he left to find his father.

Dracula was sitting in a study, chrysanthemum tea cooling in an innocent flower-print porcelain cup in front of him. After so long, he didn't even need to Sleep much like other vampires. With him around, the castle was constantly sitting in a dark sky, so the Sun could not chase him into the catacombs.

He heard the doors creak open behind him. "Good morning, son!"

"...You do not drink tea." Arikado closed the door behind him and stood in front of Dracula.

"I like watching it." Dracula smiled cruelly-the only type he could pull off. "I know you watch things too, do you not? You can see the heat dissipate from the liquid. You can see this tea swirling ever-so-slightly in the cup even when nothing seems to disturb it. It is not just tea. You watch many things. In fact, you were watching Lena a few minutes ago..." Arikado's face did not change. "She is your sister now, you realize that."

"You are not busily plotting your next world-takeover, why?"

"Oh, I am merely sitting, idly waiting for the next Belmont to come for me...you probably want to save them the trouble and do it yourself, but then what will happen to your little friend?"

An alarmed expression flashed onto Arikado's face.

"I am the stem, Adrian. She is bound to me."

"If you die, she dies?"

Dracula stared into the teacup and grinned.

"You are bluffing!"

"I mean what I say...you should know that; after all, Lena is my fledgling now, just as I promised. And I think I will take your advice and plot my evils. Off with you now...oh, be a dear son and take this tea with you. It is becoming uninteresting." Dracula tapped his long, white fingers on the armrests of his chair. Arikado groaned disgustedly and left, the teacup in his hand. After all, it was from his mother's favorite china set.

The office was metallic. Bright fluorescent lights spilled into his eyes. His father sat behind the bland, metal desk, a deep frown accentuating the lines on his face. Above him, on the back wall, hung a large gilt cross.

"What did I do now, father?"

"What makes you think you've done anything?"

"Then what haven't I done?"

"Come, sit." Mr. Belmont gestured at a chair in front of his desk. Lolida warily took a seat, slightly worried that if he leaned back, he would find himself the recipient of an extensive lecture on posture. "Li, I am afraid...that I've raised you wrong."

"What?" this couldn't be his calculating father who would never admit wrongs.

"I withheld the family duty from you...I thought he wouldn't ever be back."

"...What family duty? I'm working here, aren't I?" Lolida noticed that his father's expression was no longer one of stern coldness but one of distraught anxiety.

"No, not medicine. You think we were always just pharmacists, potion-makers? Dealers in mortal health..."

"Mortal health? What other health is there? I don't know what you're rambling about. Are you feeling alright?" Lolida reached for the phone. "Do you want to go the hospital?"

"No! Listen!" his father pushed his hand away from the phone. "Lolida, I think it may be too late...but you have to know. There is unearthly power in our blood. Our ancestors were vampire hunters."

Lolida's eyebrows flew high above his eyes. Then he laughed. "Father, you've been working too hard!"

"No, Lolida. It's true." Li's father took the cross from the wall and walked to the center of the room. The cross began to glow in his hand. "Come, hold the cross."

"As long as you won't do anything stupid after..." Li took the other end of the cross and white light erupted from the cross. He raised his arm to block his eyes, but the light penetrated through everything. Beneath him, the floor felt as if it was falling under. "Father, what did we do!"

**(End of Chapter)**

Once again, I finally update after...forever. great...a few days ago I downloaded a pv for a song by the TRAX. rose is my hero!

Treeboy is pretty...you'd know what i'm talking about if you've watched this chinese tv series i just finished watching. so bwaha

Hey, do me a favor and review...


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